Ties of the Beloved
by Murakami no Kitsune
Summary: There is a moment when you realize how sideways a situation is going to become. Even your heart pumping the god-like feelings of adrenaline, is unable to stave off the foreboding that clings to your gut. In that moment… Is when things really begin to change. (Naruto is Kurama, Naruto/Harem, other pairings/cannon pairings, Non-Yaoi, accepted a challenge fic From: Chillman22)
1. The Rubber Band

oOo

 **Prologue**

 **/\\_/\**

 **=(^^)=**

 **V**

* * *

 _There is a moment when you realize how sideways a situation is going to become. Even your heart pumping the god-like feelings of adrenaline, is unable to stave off the foreboding that clings to your gut. In that moment…_

 _Is when things really begin to change._

* * *

oOo

Kakashi knew they should have turned back when Tazuna, the bridge builder, lied. He knew they should have turned back when the Demon of the Bloody Mist, Momochi Zabuza made his getaway, aided by that _fake_ hunter-nin. His cute little Genin weren't ready for this, barely out of the Academy, wet behind the ears and so-so- _so_ green that it made his flak jacket dull by comparison.

No, they weren't ready for this, no one was ever ready for _this_.

He wasn't ready either… if he was honest...

Blood dripped in rivers down the chin of the boy on his arm, a small determined look set on a rapidly paling face. The sound of a thousand chirping birds dwindling down into the near silence of a steady splatter of life giving liquid on cement.

Sakura let out a blood curtailing scream as the mist cleared, Kakashi, even with his enhanced hearing, barely registers the distant, horror filled shriek. He can only stare at the boy clinging to his arm in an effort to stave off certain death for just a few moments longer. Morbidly, Kakashi muses, he would last longer if he stopped trying to move, it was a wasted effort anyway…

His whole _career_ was a wasted effort.

Dry lips parted, likely in a vain attempt at last words, but a stream of blood gurgled past them instead. It allowed the child a rattling breath, likely a small reprieve to the heavy drowning feeling in his lungs.

Why had the boy _done it_? To protect the monster hidden in the mist?

No… not likely.

Shocked, warm-brown eyes just to the side of damp blond-locks was likely the reason. Naruto, sworn to protect his friends, even if they were the enemy…

Kakashi pulled his hand back with a squelch, orange, synthetic fibers clinging to the rapidly drying blood. Instead of letting his listless student crumple to the ground, he pulled the too small body against his own as his knees gave out. As if holding onto the body would keep the tiny soul inside of it.

There was so much blood, _too_ much blood, it wouldn't _stop_.

Why would it?

It was an assassination jutsu after all, it did its _job_ , but why, _oh why_ , couldn't he do his own job right? He had _one_ job, _protect his teammates_.

Kami-sama… _what had he done_?

* * *

 **CHAPTER I**

 **(The Rubber Band)**

 **/\\_/\**

 **=(^^)=**

 **V**

* * *

 _Self preservation is rooted into our being, so much so, that often it is impossible to overcome the urge to save oneself. It is the primal side, survival and fear of the unknown, what lies beyond that drives us. Only when our lives are truly on the line will we discover this truth about ourselves…_

 _The lengths we would go to survive._

* * *

oOo

More than once Naruto had been accused of being impulsive and lacking forethought for his actions.

They would be wrong, nine times out of ten.

More often than not, there was a great deal of planning that went into his pranks, training, meals and the general direction his life went in. People often mistook the brashness and obscure patterns Naruto used as idiotic carelessness.

The true lack of thinking things through was repeating the same thing time and time again. There was order, for sure, a system followed that resulted in the same outcome without outside interference every time. A routine… predictable and easily foiled time, after time, after time, so ingrained it no longer required forethought. It was no wonder he got away with his little schemes so often, if you really want a plan to work, you gotta change it up, think on your feet.

Besides, plans hardly lasted past first contact with the enemy, they were made to be changed, to be fluid, bending… unpredictable.

Did he always plan?

No.

One time out of ten, the exception to every rule and Naruto's hand latched onto it like a rubber band stretched to it's limit, ready to be snapped back into its place.

And snap he did; right into his Sensei's lightning fist… no pun intended…

Kakashi was panting, clearly out of breath and Naruto found himself having trouble mirroring the same motion despite being winded. Not that either of them really expected that he could, the hand through his chest was clearly a good indicator as to why breathing wasn't an option.

Naruto didn't want to die, hadn't planned on this happening and neither had Kakashi, nor Haku, who had intended to take the blow himself. It all happened so fast, one minute he was about to kill a boy who had been begging him for death and the next, death was staring him down with mismatched irises. Mismatched irises that belonged to his Sensei's panic filled eyes.

The fabric Naruto was pulled against was rough and uncomfortable. Everything overly sensitive and yet numbing all at once. Kakashi's shaking hand twisted through his hair and Naruto didn't have the heart or the breath to tell him it felt weird. His senses were overwhelmed, he couldn't tell what hurt and what didn't. Logically the big gaping wound in his chest should hurt the most, but dully, he noted, it was the knuckles on his right hand, the ones that shattered Haku's mask.

It is said that your life flashes before your eyes before death… Naruto didn't experience any of that, no panic, no fear, no life before his eyes, just the steady thrum of power still coursing through his body. There was one thought coursing through Naruto's mind in that moment.

' _I don't want to die._ '

Then, like a switch being flipped, he remembered. The wound slowly closed in his chest and a new power washed over him, followed by a flood of knowledge that hadn't been there before. Later, when his mind was clear of the fogginess of blood loss, he might liken the whole thing to having amnesia. One moment he thought of himself as Naruto a name given to him by human parents and the next he remember being someone else… something else.

Snap, it just clicked into place, as if he had been trying to remember something important his whole life, only to stop thinking about it and it come to him at the most random of times. Triggered by a thought, a burning need that crossed time and space, something so familiar, yet still new. He had not wanted to die then either.

But die he had, held in the arms of his daughter, surrounded by his other children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their significant others. As badly as he had wanted to see his long dead friends, that selfish, primal part of him craved to keep living. He wasn't a coward, not really, he knew what laid beyond death, knew not to fear it, but try as he might, he couldn't let go of the living world. Things had changed over the centuries, his family grew, humans evolved and war came to the beings that emerged…

Threatened to return even after they had been stopped.

Perhaps that was why he had asked it of Koenma, begged him this favor and it came with a price…

It always comes with a price.

He wouldn't remember each time he was reborn, wasn't supposed to remember, but things didn't always play out the way the little god planned. Death was supposed to be the only time he was himself once more… but, never before had his body been strong enough to overcome death. This body should have been dead several minutes ago and yet, despite not being able to breath for the moment, he was still among the mortal plane. Alive and able to remember who he is… was.

He was Yoko Kurama and he had died, only to be reborn time and time again… oh the irony. There was no doubt that Koenma had done it on purpose, sending him into life cycles of his own descendants, this time into the body of Uzumaki Naruto. However, Kurama doubted that even King Enma could have foreseen the Kyūbi no Kitsune being sealed inside of this mortal vessel. Of all the odds, a fox sealed with a fox was not something Kurama could have imagined. It did, however, serve him well. Without the angry, corrosive chakra coursing through the pathways of this young body, Kurama wouldn't have remembered… would have died _again_.

Kakashi slowly pushed Naruto away in shock as hair lightened and lengthened. Claws that had receded after fighting Haku returned, a tail that had been nothing but chakra moments ago, now solid and covered in his own silky fur. Fleshy ears were replaced by fur covered ones, shifting to better fit his head and eyes once as blue as the sky, were now a metallic gold.

"N-Naruto?" Kakashi croaked, voice raw with mixed emotions as the anguish of killing his student was replaced with confusion and apprehension.

"Sensei… I-"

"-Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A grating voice interrupted and all heads turn to find a short man stepping out of the mist. The cane he carried clacked noisily against the cement and his small, round glasses gave his eyes an even beadier look. "You're all talk, I hired you to do a job and you can't even take out one of them? Tch, Demon of the Mist, what a waste. It's a good thing I never planned on paying you, clearly you weren't worth it anyway."

Kurama didn't like him one bit, he had seen his ilk before… killed men just like him.

"You are a fool." Kurama chuckled, ears flattened against his head and the minute flick of his tail betraying the false humor at Gatō's deception. Gatō openly laughed at that, as if he had the upper hand in the situation.

"You really think you can beat me? You look as if you can barely stand and I have you out numbered!" Gatō cackled, the men around him raising their weapons threateningly.

"Strange, I thought clowns were supposed to make everyone _else_ laugh." Kurama deadpanned and Kakashi put a warning hand on his shoulder.

"There's no need to taunt him, Naruto." His Sensei warned and Kurama's tail only gave a twitch in response.

"What was that? I'll make you regret crossing paths with me!" He bellowed and Kurama raised a pinky finger, digging it into his ringing ear.

"Regret has a whole other meaning to someone who has lived as long as I, but I don't think you will be one of them." Huffing, Kurama brushed off Kakashi's shaking hand and looked to Haku. "Do you have an seeds or herbs on you at the moment?" He asked and the boy nodded, pulling out a handful of dried leaves, pods and seeds.

"W-what do you want them for?" Haku asked, looking to Zabuza to confirm it was alright to give their one-time enemy the plants.

Kurama selected the rosehip from the pile with a sly grin and crushed it in his palm. He produce a single rose, running his hands through his hair to distribute the other seeds for later use and raised the flower to his nose. "Stopping to smell the roses of course." He chuckled at the widening of the shinobi's eyes and turned his attention back to a scoffing Gatō.

"Cheap tricks won't save you, not once my men are through with you." The business tycoon boasted and his men chuckled, taking a threatening step forward.

The others shared worried looks, unbeknownst to Kurama, the general consensus was that he shouldn't have been able to do that.

Not from a seed.

Feeding the rose his chakra, Kurama snapped his arm out, growing his trade-mark whip and allowed the thorny vine to pool at his feet. It gave Gatō and his bandits pause at the rose petals floating in the rapidly fading mist.

"Rose whip, _petals and thorns_." The slowly descending petals paused mid air and hardened, turning their sharp edges toward Gatō's men.

The first man to scoff was the first to be attacked, shock etched on his face as he collapsed from his wounds. Gatō fell back, his butt hitting cement hard and attempting to scramble away from the rapidly decreasing number of his men. Paying the man no heed as the coward gave a fearful scream and demand for his men to stop him, Kurama incapacitated the remainder of the bandits with a bored sigh.

Stalking forward a few paces, Kurama paused before the rat of a man. His hip was jutted out confidently, tail swaying calmly as he stared contemptuously to the scum at his feet. Sneering, his lip curled back from his canines and a low growl emanated from his chest as Gatō drew a short sword from the cane.

"S-stay away from me!" He shouted, swinging the weapon blindly as if it were a club.

"Tell me, do you regret killing innocent people?" Kurama demanded and Gatō snarled that he didn't. One second Kurama's arm was loose at his side and the next there were several snaps, his arm was raised and the whip was settled back down, its movements nigh untraceable by anything but the sharingan. "Then I will have no regret removing the scum that you are from my sight."

"I'll kill yo-ack!' Gatō had been about to threaten, only for his vision to bisect, along with his limbs and the rest of his flesh as the slashes Kurama had made finally registered.

Just like that, the business tycoon that terrorizes the land of waves was nothing more than a stain on the bridge to be forgotten and trampled over.

"N-Naruto?"

Kurama's ears twitched at the name and he turned a gentle smile to his pink haired teammate. Opening his mouth to reassure her, of what he didn't know, the world tilted sideways and the corners of his vision blackened. His knees gave out and he was dimly aware of the cement rushing up to greet him.

Clearly he had over exerted himself and childishly thought it wasn't fair that his cool image was now ruined…

No, Naruto thought that, the power and memories so prominent moments before were now distant, as if waking from a vivid dream…

Just who was he?

oOo

* * *

To be continued...

* * *

oOo

AN: If anyone notices any glaringly obvious mistakes, please let me know. Thank you for reading the first chapter.


	2. Crystalline Tear

**oOo**

 **CHAPTER II**

 **(Crystalline Tear)**

 **/\\_/\**

 **=(^^)=**

 **\/**

* * *

 _Things only have value if there is someone who wants it. An object seen as trash by so many can be a hidden treasure to the right eyes. And sometimes, just on occasion, trash can become treasure…_

 _To those who find a different perspective._

* * *

oOo

Having not eaten before joining her Sensei on the bridge, turned out to be beneficial for Sakura. Otherwise she would have wasted Tsunami's delicious cooking. As it was, it took everything she had to keep from bending over and dry heaving her stomach inside out. The surreal smell of raw meats and coppery blood, was just a depth to the gore that was hard to not focus on.

What had just happened?

One minute she is staring in horror at her Sensei putting a fist through her _stupid_ teammate and the next, said teammate _shreds_ the man that single handedly monopolized the trading industry in Wave country. Her teammate, who should be dead, killed a man in cold blood without so much as a twitch to his furry tail.

Yeah… that was weird and brought up a whole slew of questions, ones their Sensei had no answers for. Even more odd was the fact that Naruto's long hair was now silver, several shades lighter than their Sensei! Her hand halted in an aborted twitched toward his unconscious body when a hand landed on her shoulder. Nearly jumping out of her skin, her head snapped up to look at their towering Jonin leader.

"He's just exhausted, where's Sasuke?" He asked. Her expression wilted, turning sad as she mentally cursed herself for momentarily forgetting about the boy she loved.

"I heard that fake hunter-nin say he killed him, Kakashi-Sensei..." She trailed off, not missing the older boy flinch as she stood from crouching next to Naruto.

"My name is Haku…" The boy said taking a couple steps out of Zabuza's reach, even for the Kubikiribōchō, with its impressive length. "And your teammate is still alive."

"Damn it brat, how many times do I have to tell you to quit going soft on people." Zabuza growled, managing to grab Haku around the neck and mess his hair up, though his words didn't hold any heat in them. "And what was with that stunt you pulled, huh? What good is a tool that's dead?"

If his voice cracked a little, Sakura wasn't sure if it was from emotion or all the yelling he had been doing. Haku's sad smile was telling enough, it was Zabuza's way of showing he cared without ruining his tough-guy image.

He wasn't fooling her, no matter how strange it was to be staring fondly at a man who had just been trying to kill them…

"I'm sorry that I failed you Zabuza-sama." Haku hung his head and earned himself a lump on the noggin for his troubles.

"We're alive, that's all that matters." Sakura heard the former Kirigakure shinobi say as her Sensei returned carrying a dead looking Sasuke.

"What will it take to revive him?" Kakashi asked and she hated how pale her love was, unnaturally peaceful looking…

Yet it wasn't quite as urethral as whatever happened to Naruto. His tan skin warm looking and his silver hair almost translucent if you were to look closely enough. The two boys, laid side by side were polar opposites, light and dark, yin and yang, crunchy and smooth… not wait, that last one was peanut butter…

Oh.

Her appetite had returned.

"If I may?" Haku asked, explaining to Kakashi which senbon to remove first to cause as little pain as possible.

Finally carding her fingers through Naruto's hair, they found one of the strange ears hidden among the strands. It felt just like a dog or a cat ear, it was soft and yet rigid enough to stand on its own. His normal ears were gone, she noted, as she felt around the smooth flesh at the juncture of his jaw and skull where they used to be.

"Sensei, is Naruto and Sasuke going to be alright?" She asked, pulling her hand from his hair and looking to the silver haired Jonin.

He sighed, running a hand through his own unruly hair, the other one stuffed in his pants pocket. "Sasuke will be fine with a little rest. As for Naruto, I'm not sure. I can honestly say I've never seen anything like this before."

"Because I'm just awesome like that." Naruto groaned, his hand going to his head as he sat up with a wince. "Ow, what happened, my head hurts?"

"What do you remember?" Kakashi asked, looming over them and Sakura stood, dusting her dress off.

"Huh… that jerk in the mask, he killed Sasuke!" Naruto panicked, looking to Sasuke and then spotting Haku, he jumped to his feet as if to lunge at him, only to pause when their Sensei grabbed his collar.

"Sasuke is alive, he was just in a death like state." Kakashi explained calmly and Naruto visibly sagged in relief.

"Oh." Naruto said lamely, standing up straight, there was a visible shift and he stepped out of their Sensei's grip, turning to look forlornly at Gatō. "I remember now… I'm glad everyone is alright."

"Naruto, I'm sorry for-" Kakashi began to say and Naruto shook his head, cutting him off.

"It's not your fault and it isn't Haku's either. I hadn't planned on getting dragged along for the ride when I tried to stop Haku from going, but I don't regret it either."

It was the most serious Sakura had seen Naruto, almost as if he were a completely different person. The two former Kiri-nin, who had wandered off to gather their weapons, seemed to finally notice that Naruto was up and Haku hedged just close enough to carry polite conversation, but by no means close enough to be considered welcome company. Naruto gave him the most stunning small smile, one she had never seen him make before. It was gentle and far from the boisterous one he usually gave her.

He actually meant it, she realized.

"I'm sorry I made you believe your friend was dead." Haku said meekly and Sakura tilted her head curiously at the boy… huh, usually she liked the pretty boys, but she felt nothing for the fake hunter-nin. Maybe it was because he hurt her Sasuke-kun.

' _ **Cha! I'll never forgive him!**_ ' Inner-Sakura ranted.

"It's alright, he isn't dead and all is forgiven." Chuckling, Naruto scratched the back of his head and the smile she was used to returned, the one where you could hardly see his eyes.

That smile just pissed her off and she couldn't believe she might have thought, even for a second, that Naruto was handsome.

' _ **Like Naruto-baka could ever be on the same level as Sasuke-kun. Who is he to decide that we're just going to forgive that cretin! I'll show him!**_ ' Inner-Sakura pounded her fist into the palm of her other hand.

"Naruto, do you know what happened to your appearance?" Sensei asked, though he looked hesitant to do so in front of someone who was an enemy.

"Yes." Picking at the dried blood and frayed edges of his destroyed jacket, he didn't look as if he were going to continue.

"Care to elaborate? Because it's very odd that you suddenly have cat ears and a tail." Kakashi intoned, it sounded accusing despite the calm, mild, almost bored manner he asked.

"I'm no cat, I have more in common with your canine friends than I do felines." Naruto sneered and it was almost strange seeing the look on his face.

It was something she expected from an Hyuuga or Sasuke-kun.

"You're going to make this as difficult as possible, aren't you?" The friendly air about their Sensei was gone and Naruto sighed.

' _ **Cha! Just spit it out already**_!' Inner-Sakura snapped and she couldn't help but agree with herself.

"No." Naruto fiddled with a strand of hair between clawed fingers before dropping it. "That wasn't my intention, but what I have to say isn't easy to explain and likely to be taken in the worst possible way. Considering who I am, what I am, can you honestly believe I am going to be welcome back to the village looking as I do? The irony, this isn't even the fox's fault, but genetics."

' _ **Huh?**_ ' Inner-Sakura blinked in confusion, but outwardly could only stare in dumbly at them.

Sakura looked between her teammate and their Sensei, they were talking about something and she wasn't quite getting it. Did Naruto have a kekkei genkai? And what did that have to do with foxes?

"What do you mean, Naruto?" She asked, finally fed up with the silent staring contest the two males were having with a shy Haku stuck in between.

"I am a Jinchuuriki, do you know what that means?" Naruto asked, suddenly breaking eye contact with Kakashi and looking at her sadly when she nodded. "I hold the Kyūbi no Kitsune and Kakashi-Sensei is likely thinking the fox has taken over my body."

"WHAT!" She shrieked, looking to her Sensei in a panic, hoping that Naruto was making it up. The solome expression was answer enough. "B-but I thought the Yondaime Hokage killed it!" She challenged, logic hadn't failed her yet and Naruto flinched.

" _She_ , Kyūbi is a vixen, all nine tailed foxes are." There was a playfulness in Naruto's eyes when he said this, but how was she to know what was so amusing? "And the Yondaime could not kill a Bijuu, they are chakra constructs, they have no physical form and can only be contained, hence the Jinchuuriki."

It made sense in a twisted way and Sakura wondered how she had never figured it out before. They taught about the Bijuu and their Jinchuuriki in the academy. Now that she thought back on it, she was sure the texts stated the Yondaime defeated the Kyūbi, no where did it say he killed it. Naturally they had all assumed defeat meant death, drawn their own conclusions to the half truth and omission of information… likely, that was the point.

"Is that why the villagers stare the way they do? Why my mom, oh _Kami_ , _my mom knew_!" Sakura raged, not at her annoying teammate, but at her own parents! How could they have encouraged her to treat Naruto so badly when he had been nothing but nice to her. Sure, some of it was her own stupidity, for not seeing and allowing his abrasively blunt way of looking at things to bother her. "What kind of parents let their child be used for something like that?" She demanded hotly at no one in particular and didn't expect an answer.

"The dead kind." A scratchy voice replied and she looked down, startled, at Sasuke who was attempting to sit up.

"Sasuke-kun, how long have you been awake?" She asked, crouching down to help him, only to be brushed off.

"Long enough to hear we've been lied to our whole lives." Dully he ran his fingers under one of his eyes. "Not surprising really, part of the shinobi life is covering up how things really happened. We lie to gloss over the atrocities we perform to keep people from panicking." He huffed, pushing himself to his feet, or attempted to and gave Haku a withering glare when he failed.

"I'm sorry, you were stronger than I expected, there shouldn't be any lasting damage." Haku mumbled encouragingly.

"Hn."

"Well, I can assure you all, my new appearance has nothing to do with the Kyūbi, Sensei can check that the seal is still in place for himself." Naruto lifted his shirt and channeled chakra, making the seal appear.

"So what, you're trying to say you inherited a kekkei genkai? Last time I check Uzumaki were known for their sealing abilities, not their bloodline." Sasuke snorted in disbelief and Kakashi seemed to be less wary seeing the seal still in place, though he was no expert it looked undamaged.

"Well in a manner of speaking, yes." Naruto said with a mysteriously playful smirk. It made it hard for Sakura to stay mad at him, not when she wanted to know what he was hinting at more than her urge to pummel him. "The Uzumaki were known to have longevity and such vast chakra stores that some were able to manifest them into physical weapons. It wasn't as obviously a kekkei genkai as say, the sharingan, but it was passed down through genetics, so there is that..."

' _ **That has nothing to do with why you have a tail!**_ ' Inner-Sakura growled, frothing at the mouth in frustration.

"But Naruto, your appearance changed." Sakura pointed out timidly, ignoring her inner and was secretly pleased when their Sensei nodded in agreement.

"That and how do you know so much about the Uzumaki? A week ago you didn't even know what the tree climbing exercise was." Kakashi accused and Naruto just continued giving them that small smirk.

"That's because I didn't inherit just the Uzumaki kekkei genkai, of course, though it does play a large factor in my recently physical appearance, no doubt. Unless you knew who my parents were, Kakashi-Sensei… then I guess we'll never know."

'The bastard is leading us around on a verbal goose chase!' Sakura mentally growled at her inner.

' _ **Cha! Show him who's boss Sakura!**_ ' Inner-Sakura agreed. Sakura was ready to launch herself at her teammate and shake him for information, but was saved the chance when Zabuza joined them, standing just behind Haku.

"Come on kid, we shouldn't hang around any longer, the villagers are bound to show up if we do and I don't want to get into another fight today." The man said and Haku's bottom lip trembled looking back at Naruto, before the slightly older boy slammed her teammate into a bone crushing hug.

' _ **Where did that jerk get off touching her teammate!**_ ' Sakura was a little confused at her inner's jealously, but sort of agreed. Weren't they trying to kill each other not ten minutes ago?

"I'm going to miss you Naruto-kun." Haku said, pulling back as a tear slid down his face, he reached up and caught it before it could fall too far. "I want you to have this, to keep sight of your nindo." He handed over a clear-blue gem, almost the same shade Naruto's eyes had been and Naruto leaned in really close.

"Thank you Haku-chan, we'll meet again, it's a promise."

The last thing Sakura saw before passing out from a nosebleed was Naruto kissing another boy on the cheek!

' _ **Cha! Life is good!**_ '

* * *

oOo

Naruto turned when he heard a thump to see Sakura on the ground out cold, looking to his Sensei and a traumatised Sasuke, mouth open and eyebrow twitching.

"What's her problem?" He asked, Kakashi shrugged and Sasuke floundered for a moment before pointing.

"Do you make a habit of randomly kissing guys?!" He demanded and Naruto scratched his head.

"You mean when Shikamaru bumped-"

"-Not _that_ dobe, why are you kissing Haku?"

Oh, how to explain that one…

However, Naruto was saved explaining when Haku gave a stunning, if a little impish, grin.

"I lied, I'm not actually a boy." Haku declared happily, pecking Naruto on the cheek in return and turned to trot after a quickly retreating Zabuza.

"Eh… Sasuke, are you okay?" Naruto asked tentatively when the Uchiha remained frozen where he stood, the scarecrow that had replaced their Sensei swaying in the cold breeze next to him.

"Hn." Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Sasuke turned and walked off.

'Huh, when did our Sensei leave?' Naruto wondered, looking at the scarecrow, the empty spot Sasuke had occupied and then down at Sakura.

That meant he was the only one left to carry Sakura-chan…

Grinning, he lifted her up and draped her limp form over his shoulder. He had his memories back and got to chivalrously carry a beautiful woman back to the residence they were staying at, hopefully earning him her favor.

'Ah, life was good.'


	3. Do Unto Others

**CHAPTER III**

 **(Do Unto Others)**

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=(^^)=

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oOo

* * *

 _People can be annoying, rude and uncaring of others, but in turn they to are treated with the same disregard. Often times it is easy to forget, that the person who knocked you over in a rush might be in a hurry to save someone's life or the person who caused a scene in the checkout line was just told they have six months to live. If we take a moment to give a little kindness…_

 _Then maybe we'll find some in turn._

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oOo

Sarutobi had been harder to convince that Kurama wasn't a threat than Kakashi had been. The best part was he could claim plausible deniability, because there was no way for "Naruto" to know who his parents were. Not that it stopped Kurama from figuring it out, but he decided it was better to keep up the guise of an idiot, than to be sent to the torture and interrogation. He didn't want to be accused of being an infiltrator and one look into his mind would make it impossible to prove that he wasn't.

He had bought himself some time by pulling the whole "clan business" card that everyone shoved in his face when they didn't want to explain something about their abilities to him. Come to find out, there were actually rules and laws that protected that information, but Kurama hadn't known that at the time. A lot had changed over the last few millennia and politics were way more corrupt now than they had been after the dawn of the shinobi era.

Not that he needed them to tell him about their clan secrets anymore. He probably knew more about their abilities and where they came from than the clan themselves.

One of the shop owners looked ready to jump him as he walked past. An elderly woman shook in terror before fainting and hitting the ground with a crunch and a dramatic cloud of dust. He had been getting the same varying reactions for the last couple of days, either hostile or fearful and he counted his lucky stars no one had acted on their manic trepidation of him. They were acting much like the days before they Kyuubi festival and it was only a matter of time before someone decides it's worth getting locked up or killed to get a shot in at the demon spawn.

Sum of the planet, there were some in every generation.

Pausing in his walk through the village, Kurama inhaled needlessly in exasperation and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. The orange jumpsuit he had been wearing upon awakening, back in the land of waves, had been beyond saving. He now wore dark blue pants with a soft orange, mandarin collared tunic. Not unlike the ones he used to wear, in another life... He had carefully painted the Uzumaki swirl on to the upper arm of the sleeves, making clear he was holding tightly onto the title of clan head.

But that was neither here nor there and he had a little problem to take care of instead of muse over narrow minded fools.

"Rocks are not square, you know." Kurama said lightly and the box with large eye holes was replaced by two boys and a girl. One of the boys, the leader, was pointing at him, a too long scarf wound around his neck, missing front teeth and wearing goggles proudly. He was glad to note the spiky brown hair was no longer crammed under that ridiculous helmet the boy had been forced to wear. Moegi was tall for her age, her coppery colored hair in low pigtails. The final boy was the shyest of the group, hiding behind his glasses, flat, brown hair and a trail of snot running down his lip, evidence of his sinus issues.

"As cunning as ever Boss! But nothing could prepare you for this! Oiroke no Jutsu!" Konohamaru shouted and all three of them turned into buxom, scantily clad women.

"Well done. However, that jutsu doesn't work on me. What are you three doing here?" Kurama deadpanned, wondering why had his other personality been so naive and gullible. Even with how quirky shinobi of this village are, there was no way that teaching a nine year old how to turn into a nearly naked woman was okay.

"Ah, I knew you were good Boss, we'll get you next time for sure." He declared, putting tiny fists on tiny hips and standing as straight as he possibly could, all in an effort to make himself look taller.

"What are you three doing here? Don't you have training or class?" He asked good naturedly, trying to keep his annoyance from coloring his tone. It seemed to work, since Konohamaru became haughty, chin tilted up as if to look down his nose at Kurama.

"There are three reasons we're here, first is you promised to play ninja with us when you got back and also we wanted to see if the rumors were true and I have to say Boss… you look kinda like a girl, no offence."

" _That's only two reasons._ " Kurama grumbled under his breath, not really in the mood to entertain the brats. However, a promise is a promise and they were endearing in away only a child could be. Far be it from him to disappoint not one, but three innocent and perfectly corruptible children. "Fine, I'll give you a head start to be fair."

"Alright!" Konohamaru exclaimed, fist pumped in the air before he and the other two took off.

Turning and taking after them at a sedate pace, he ran into something as he was about to round the corner. There was a soft 'harumph' and his hand reflexively grabbed onto whatever was about to fall.

Turns out that it happened to be one of his teammates.

"Oi! Watch wher-" Sakura paused and looked up at him, before looking away for some reason. "Oh, Naruto… huh, sorry, I was a bit distracted." She said, standing and tucking a strand of pink bangs behind her ear.

She really was beautiful, he could see why he had been attracted to her, even though he wasn't in full possession of his memories. The girl reminded him of the sakura tree Hei used to frequent outside his bedroom window. Delicate blossoms, but a strong inner core that had stood the test of time, not withering until long after his time.

"It's no trouble, Sakura-chan. I was in a bit of a rush myself, I had promised Konohamaru and his friends that I would play with them when I got back from our mission. How have you been?" He asked good naturedly, knowing that Konohamaru and his gang hadn't gotten too far yet.

"Alright, I guess." She said dazed, but seemed to snap out of it. "I just never thought I would see someone killed on my first mission out of the village, you know…"

"Death is never easy, but we all made it out alive and I'm grateful for that." Sakura seemed to liven back up after that and gave a smile Kurama hadn't seen her give yet.

"Thanks Naruto, that actually kinda helps." Sakura beamed, though he suspected it was to get him to stop worrying.

A scream from not too far away made his ears twitch and Kurama took off around several corners in the direction Konohamaru and his gang had vanished. Surprisingly, Sakura was quick to follow and the two of them skidded to a halt around a rather tall fence to find Konohamaru about to be assaulted by an older boy.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Kurama warned, crossing his arms to glower at the Sunagakure shinobi about to pelt his apprentice.

"And why not, he started it girly-man." The boy snarled, looking as if he were going to disregard Kurama and resume his attempt to pummel the academy student.

"Oh, there's several reason you shouldn't and him being the Sandaime Hokage's grandson is one of them." Kurama said dropping his arms from across his chest and stuffing them in his pockets, taking notice of the female Suna-nin standing behind her partner.

Now that he had a closer look, the girl was attractive in a warrior kind of way. She was blond, buxom, and knew how to jutt her hip just enough to look feminine, but still be battle ready. Her short skirt gave her lots of room to move and the top of the dress was low cut on the shoulders, but covered her cleavage. Under that, she wore bits of light mesh armor, indication that she was likely a ranged fighter.

There wasn't much he could see of the older boy, he wore black head to toe, a full body puppeteer's suit and had face paint that made him loosely resemble the puppets he likely commanded. His fist had lowered from where it had been poised above Konohamaru and what little color he had in his face had drained.

"Nobody want's start a war-" The chuckled nervously, trying to hint at her partner how serious the situation could get. "You should thank the nice man for the warning. _Right, Kankuro_?" She finished through clenched teeth, looking ready to clobber the puppeteer if he didn't let go of the kid.

The fabric of Konohamaru's scarf slipped through his fingers and the Hokage's grandson was set back down gently. Taking several shaky step away, Kankuro bowed and apologised for his grievances.

"It's alright, no one was grievously hurt. It would be remiss of me not to ask, but you do have the proper clearance to enter the village, correct?" Kurama inquired, watching Konohamaru slink behind him to join his friends who were cowering behind Sakura, trying not to draw attention to themselves.

"Of course, sorry I-" The girl started, having pulled the papers out and was about to hand them over when a cloud of smoke obscured their vision.

"KONOHAMARU!" Ebisu shouted, as if his entry wasn't enough to gain the attention of half the village. "What exactly do you think you're doing here." It was likely a rhetorical question, but Konohamaru answered smartly anyway.

The already awkward situation became tense with killer intent, the tokubetsu Jounin directing his ire at Kurama so blatantly that even Sakura and Konohamaru's gang picked up on it. Kurama accepted the forms from the Suna-nin, glancing over them to confirm they were in fact in the village legally, before handing returning the documents.

"Uzumaki Naruto, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Temari. Perhaps if my Jounin instructor permits it, we shall meet again in the coming exam." He said cordially, trying to distract them from Ebisu's ranting, it was starting to take a dangerous turn.

"I-I don't care!" Konohamaru shouted, breaking what little face Kurama had managed to scavenge with the allied shinobi present. Konohamaru looked to be on the verge of tears, but was stubbornly holding them back. "I don't care what you think he is, Boss is strong and nice and he actually cares, which is more than I can say for you and the rest of this stink'in village." Konohamaru growled and Kurama sighed in exasperation when Ebisu opened his mouth to explain exactly why Konohamaru didn't want to be infected. Summoning the roots of a nearby tree, he paused just long enough to silently curse himself for not noticing their unwanted audience, before Ebisu found himself wrapped in roots, pinned to the ground and his screams muffled.

"N-Naruto! What are you doing?" Sakura demanded, though she didn't move to stop him.

Kurama let a malicious smirk play on his face as he intentionally ignored her, he reached down, retrieving the man's weapons pouch and the sunglasses off his face. Putting the sunglasses on himself, he pulled out the man's calligraphy brush, used for reports on Konohamaru and dipped it in the ink, drawing fake sunglasses on his face.

"Rule twenty-seven; a shinobi must never show weakness." Kurama quoted. With a flourish, he gave Ebisu dramatic, angry eyebrows and then stuck the handle of the brush up his right nostril. "Rule twenty-eight; If a shinobi shows weakness, it's probably a trap and if it isn't, take advantage." Kurama grinned and stood, dusting his hands, only to meet a glaring Sakura.

"Na-ru-to!" She took a swing at him and missed, almost stumbling into Kankuro and Temari. "Where do you get off attacking Konohamaru's tutor? Didn't you just get done telling those two what a bad idea it was to attack someone!" She shrieked, nostrils flared like an angry bull.

"Indeed, I did Sakura-chan. However, I find his punishment fit the crime, as it were. A childish prank for childish finger pointing. If Ebisu- _sensei_ , is incapable of telling water from the glass it is contained, then I have a difficult time believing he is fit for the role of tutor." Kurama reasoned, all but spitting the title out at the man who was glaring whole heartedly at the reincarnated fox.

Oh if looks could kill… well, they could, but Ebisu was hardly in possession of such skills or the bloodline required.

"Kankuro, Temari, we're leaving." A deep raspy voice said from the branch above where Sasuke had taken residence. A short redhead dropped past Sasuke and landed lightly on the ground below the tree despite the large, encumbersome gord on his back.

"Y-yeah, let's go, Konoha shinobi are all freaks man." Kankuro muttered, likely just meant to be heard by his siblings, but Kurama heard none the less. The older boy began sweating nervously when the redhead stopped, glancing over his shoulder at Sasuke.

"What is your name?" He asked Naruto, clearly he hadn't been standing there the whole time, otherwise he would have known.

"Uzumaki-"

"-No. I asked, what is your name." He intoned, his voice level and devoid of all emotion.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, but a select few knew me as Kurama. Generally when requesting a name, it is considered polite to offer your own." Kurama challenged silkily, crossing his arms to retrieve a seed that was hidden in the crook of his arm where a strand of hair was tucked.

"I am Sabaku no Gaara… and you, in the tree, what is your name?" The redhead boy asked, eyes having never left Sasuke's.

Once Sasuke fully mastered the sharingan, that could prove to be a deadly mistake on the Suna-nin.

"Uchiha Sasuke." He gloated, arms crossed and a smirk playing on his pale lips. His fan club usually gushed about how stoic he was, but compared to Gaara, he was more like a hissing wet cat. However, there was an air about Gaara that said he could snap at any moment, with an ability to not outwardly show it that Sasuke lacked…

Kurama blinked and was surprised at himself for missing it. It wasn't Gaara he was picking that reading up from, but his two teammates. Gaara was like a scorpion sunbathing on a rock, you don't know it's dangerous until you step on it.

Now the question was, had he stepped on the proverbial scorpion?

"I look forward to facing the two of you should you enter the exams." With that, the three of them turned, the two older ones more stiffly than their younger brother and left.

"You two had better hurry or we're going to be late to the team meeting." Sasuke stuffed his hands in his pokes and vanished from the tree.

"Sorry Konohamaru, we will have to postpone our game." Kurama apologised and Sakura smiled at their pouting faces, rubbing Udon on the head before linking her arm in Kurama's.

That was odd.

"Naruto, do you mind if I call you Kurama?" She asked as she led him toward the bridge they met at just outside of training ground seven. She brushed her hair out of her face and gave him a shy glance.

"I do not mind, Sakura-chan, you are a comrade after all." He wasn't sure what she was doing, before the mission to wave she hardly noticed his existence unless his loudness annoyed her. Perhaps she was fishing for information or was insecure about her placement on the team again. It was just as likely her thoughts were still lingering on experiencing death for the first time.

His comment seemed to do something as she gave him a smile before taking off.

"Race you!" She giggled and Kurama smirked.

"What's the hurry, we'll still beat Sensei there." He challenged, even though he took off after her, ignoring the few people in the streets that were glaring hostility at him.

He needed to be more careful. Ebisu was just one example of how quickly a situation could turn bad. Though the tokubetsu Jounin had enough sense to not physically attack him, it was clear with how he almost slipped up and revealed his secret that the man wasn't thinking rationally. If his appearance could entice a reaction of that caliber from someone who is regarded as being level headed, then who knows what the villagers were planning.

Dodging a rock lobbed at him by a vendor as he raced to catch up with Sakura, he concluded it wasn't going to be pretty.

* * *

oOo

Sasuke hated many things, his brother, sweets and idiots; in that order. However, his view on Naruto being one of those three was quickly dwindling, though his hatred for the insufferable fox container was not. What was worse, the idiot was proving to be far smarter and cunning than he had before and it left Sasuke wondering how the once-blond had hid it so well.

How had he gotten so strong, so quickly?

He had cut Gatō to pieces as if he were a pig to the slaughter. It took their Sensei explaining it for the second time before he could even register that it was _Naruto_ of all people who killed the man. He had missed the other boy using whatever technique it was that hacked Gatō down to size, but Kakashi stated that whatever it was, was powerful.

If the dobe could do that, then what else was he capable of?

Then he saw it, with his own eyes, rising from the ground like the spindly tentacles of a kraken to insnare Ebisu. The tokubetsu Jounin didn't stand a chance. If he had blinked he would have missed it, one minute the man was standing there about to blab S-rank secrets and the next he's on the ground cocooned in roots.

Naruto hadn't even twitched. If it wasn't for the fact there was literally no one in the village who could have done what he did, Sasuke would doubt it had been Naruto who did it. The childish prank that followed was more along the lines of what he expected from his teammate and it only eased his nerves partially.

There was only one other person in their village that had the power to control plants and even then it was only wood based ones. So how did Naruto inherit the ability? Was it a kekkei genkai like their Sensei said, or was it something else? There were rumors the Snake Sannin was attempting to artificially create kekkei genkai before he turned traitor. Had Naruto or one of his parents been an experiment cooked up in a lab? Could he gain that kind of power, however artificially, for himself?

Snorting to himself as he settled on the bridge, he pushed it from his mind. It wasn't as if he was ever going to get an opportunity to find out, so there was no sense in focusing on it any longer.

Their Sensei had better hurry and get there, the exams were going to be interesting this year and he was not going to miss out on a chance for a promotion. He didn't have time to get distracted from his goal, even if said distraction was his apparently powerful teammate.

He would not loose, not to Naruto or his brother.

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think!


	4. To Make Chunin or Not

**oOo**

 **Chapter IV**

 **(To Make Chunin or Not)**

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* * *

oOo

 _Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. What is the point of being right, if it damages the people around you. There is a moment when being right can cost you your life,_

 _So right, that you are dead right._

* * *

oOo

Kakashi had in fact presented them with the Chunin exam forms the night before and despite Kurama's misgivings, he knew that Sasuke wouldn't forgive him if he was the reason the Uchiha missed a chance a promotion. He was proud to note Sakura had showed at least a glimmer of doubt, but was dismayed that she had caved in the end. Not that he was overly surprised, but if she had held out, then he would have too.

The three of them had turned their forms in and were now standing in the room the first task was to take place. Kurama exhaled in exasperation, resisting the urge to allow his eyes to roll up into his head. Even just a brief moment to escape the spectacle that Kiba was causing, drawing the whole room's attention to them, wasn't worth the loss of calm he was exuding. It did not help that the Inuzuka had called him by name and then loudly demanded to know what had happened to his hair, to which the Kitsune dutifully told him it wasn't any of his business. However the damage had already been done and the boy had drew attention to his less than human features.

The room was filled with older, stronger looking opponents and Kurama had his doubts that the rookies of the year would all survive this event. The feeling increased when an older boy with silver hair almost as bright as his own approached, pushing up his glasses as he blocked their view of the room.

"It isn't wise to draw attention to yourselves. This is your first time, isn't it?" The boy's falsely pleasant smile put Kurama on edge even as he returned it with a better practiced one.

"Yes it is, but I believe some of us may surprise you, thank you for your concern, but it is misplaced." Kurama replied in kind.

"This is my seventh time taking these exams, it isn't for the faint of heart and people do die, just so you know. I kept track of the shinobi that I have come across and this year's batch is going to be tough to beat, not to discourage you, but you guys don't stand a chance." Kiba went off the handle at that and once the boy managed to get him calmed down, he pulled out some cards that drew Kurama's attention.

There wasn't anything on them a good bit of stalking wouldn't have uncovered, but it did give hint to the fact that the other boy was good with intelligence gathering. Kurama would eat one of his tails if the information on the cards was even remotely half of what the boy had dug up on the people featured on the bits of chakra reactive paper. After all, his own card held his new appearance and Kurama had been careful about being out in public. Paranoia didn't even cover how careful he had been, so obviously the boy, Yakushi Kabuto, was a master at shadowing people without being noticed or was part of a spy network…

Now he really was being paranoid. Not that it was beyond the realm of possibility, but it was taking it a little far to jump to spy after meeting an ally after only a few seconds. Konoha housed some… eclectic shinobi and the kid was probably just a little quirky. The Sensei of the rookies of the year and the one team seven had met just before entering the building, were even more strange than a large portion of demons he had known in previous lives. Gai and his student Lee were odd, but harmless in their shouting of youthfulness and Kakashi was nearly useless in actual teaching, taking on a vague instructional direction and then allowing his students to work it out on their own.

Not to mention the man's perpetual lateness and love for trashy novels.

Granted Kakashi's training methods weren't completely off the mark, when used on someone of a higher ranking than Genin, or was like Sasuke, who just got it without much guidance. However, Sakura who needed proper motivation to condition herself physically and his previous incarnation who needed things explained in ways he could understand, Kakashi's training method appeared subpar. Kurama knew Kakashi was a genius, he had seen it through 'Naruto's eyes'. The only problem, he suspected, was that the man had trouble of accepting them, not just as students, but as comrades.

His fixation on teamwork allotted to a dark past and Kurama could figure out that much even without piecing together rumors and whispers Naruto had overheard as a young child. A quick glance into a stolen bingo book confirmed his suspicions and gave him a base to work with. It couldn't have been easy for Kakashi to lose every last member of his team when he was a Genin. Low and behold the Yondaime Hokage had been the Hatake's Sensei, some Uchiha brat who had been the first to die and a promising medic by the last name of Nohara, who had been next to leave the, back then, young man.

The Yondaime had died saving the village and Kurama suspected that the man had been very important to Kakashi, otherwise the three of them wouldn't have gotten a second chance to pass the bell test. Even with Sasuke being their third teammate, it was likely Naruto, _himself,_ that was the main reason Kakashi had gone easier on them than with other Genin hopefuls.

An Otogakure shinobi broke him from his musings when he attempted to attack Kabuto, though the boy had dodged, skillfully, he had still suffered injury. Kurama stepped forward with a grace that his previous self lacked and caught the physically older boy before he could drop to his knees. Kicking the Oto-nin back toward his teammates, Kurama was saved from having to defend himself from the next attack when the proctor for the exam stepped into the room and called them on their fighting.

"Sorry, I guess I just got a little excited." The Oto-nin, Dosu, apologised pretentiously, taking a seat with a remorseless chuckle.

To Kurama it made him look weak.

Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first exam, explained the rules of the test they would be taking. If they got caught cheating a certain number of times they would be kicked out, if they got questions wrong points would be deducted and so on. It was all to psych the participants up and distract them from the true goal of the test. Information gathering under surveillance and harsh conditions. The questions were almost impossible and Naruto wouldn't have been able to answer them, but Kurama could.

Once upon a time, he had been a honor student, top of his class for almost all of his school days and cunning enough to find the answers even if he didn't know them. However, this incarnation wouldn't have been able to and he already not only had a physical shift to explain away, but a personality one as well. There was no physical way for his other self to gain so much knowledge in such a short of time, Kekkei Genkai or not. These problems were difficult and were geared more toward the shinobi lifestyle, but the formula was the same as his math electives in college, but he wouldn't be able to explain how he was suddenly able to figure them out.

So when Ibiki gave the order to start, he flipped his paper over just long enough to write his name and then pretended to sweat nervously, glancing at the clock in feigned panic as time dwindled down. About twenty minutes before the end of the exam and the bluenette beside him with the pale eyes offered shyly to let him cheat. She blushed when he politely turned her down and said he had it under control and not to worry. The girl, Hyuuga Hinata if he remember right, blushed a dark rose color and turned back to fiddle with her pencil and shoot him worried glances.

Flipping his paper back over, he gripped his pencil and began writing out the first stage to breaking the people around him into his new personality and intelligence.

' _What is as big as you are, yet doesn't weigh anything?_ ' He penned out on the blank backside of his test and then just under it he wrote his second riddle.

' _What wears a coat, but will never hang it on its rack?_ '

"Alright, pencils down, it's time for the tenth question!" Ibiki barked, startling many of the lesser studious participants. Kurama just leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, shooting Sakura a reassuring smile when the proctor asked whether they wanted to take the tenth question and what would happen if they got the answer wrong.

There was a small chance that they wouldn't be able to ever take the Chunin exams again, but Kurama strongly suspected it was a trick. He was proven right when the last teams trickled out and the proctor announced that those who had remained passed. To take the tenth question was the deciding factor and Kurama was mildly pleased to find out that the test didn't prevent them from advancing to the next stage, but it likely would count against their overall score. It almost wounded his pride to just leave the test blank as he did, but his little riddle would have to suffice.

The next proctor was a strange one, her clothes were almost indecent, yet not at the same time. He suspected that there was a minute amount of chakra involved in keeping the jacket she wore from shifting to expose more than just her ample cleavage. She declared herself Mitarashi Anko and gave them instructions to meet her at training ground forty-four.

Turns out, training ground forty-four was a giant forest filled with poisonous plants, man eating animals and insects the size of rodents. If those didn't kill you, then in the five days they were allotted to obtain a second scroll, the enemy would. Unbeknownst to everyone around him, this part of the test couldn't have taken place in a better spot if he had handpicked it himself. He, nor his other persona, had known about this place and now that he did, he knew where he could secretly train in his free time.

After all, who would willingly enter something dubbed "The Forest of Death"?

Well… besides a demon reborn in human flesh.

It wasn't the first time Kurama wished his old teammates were here to experience this with him. Humans had evolved quite interestingly and they would have enjoyed this world of shinobi. Beside him Sakura and Sasuke both sneezed, whipping their noses on the back of their arms as they paused in filling out the waivers. There were several more among the participants and even the proctor who sneezed and Kurama wondered if there was a cold going around.

"Are you two alright?" He inquired, his waiver already read and signed. He didn't fear death, the way of the shinobi was that of living on the edge of life and death, so there was no further contemplation needed on whether he should sign the form or not.

"Yeah, but just to be safe we should probably seek shelter for the first night and try not to over exert ourselves until we're sure we aren't coming down with something. Does that sound alright, Sasuke-kun?" The Rosette asked, double checking that it would be alright with both of them.

"Hn." The Uchiha stated and Kurama chuckled.

"We're going to interpret that as a yes." He teased, watching as Sasuke stowed the scroll they had been handed in his pack and stalked off to the gate they had been assigned.

Once entering, they spent a few hours gathering things that looked edible and keeping an eye out for other teams. Eventually, Kurama found somewhere for them to camp for the night and sent several clones to set traps. The small clearing he had found was not far from where they entered the forest, maybe half a mile or so in, but free of insects and larger animals. Sakura immediately sat down and sipped at her canteen and Sasuke glared at the surrounding greenery.

"It's secluded and no one can see us, however, we won't be able to see anyone coming either." He stated, choosing to take a small break as well, the three of them huddled together so they didn't have to speak loudly.

"It does have its drawbacks, but it should be fine once we get shelter up, they would have to be right on top of us in order to spot us and by then we will have the advantage. Just give me a few minutes and I can have us a fairly comfortable place to stay for the night." Kurama encouraged and the Uchiha raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't question him further.

"You've really changed, Naruto, thank you for doing this… I feel kind of useless, I know I'm book smart, but you and Sasuke are the real heavy hitters of this team." Sakura murmured as Kurama pushed his chakra into the surrounding foliage, forcing vines, trees and bushes to arrange themselves into a makeshift shelter. Large clumps of moss curled up from among mulch and created soft beds for them to lay their sleeping bags out on as Sakura lamented her lack of physical poweress.

"You are stronger than you give yourself credit for, you are just a bud, still developing and waiting to bloom. Sasuke and I are just early bloomers is all, your time will come, Sakura-chan." Kurama said, causing Sasuke to snort at the lame analogy. "Not to say we've fully matured, either." Kurama tacks on impishly, causing Sasuke to scowl at him.

"Naruto, do you mind if I ask you a question about your abilities?" Sakura asked as she set about mashing some berries into some sweet sap to have with their ration bars.

"I can't promise I will answer them all, but you are welcome to ask them." Kurama said carefully, he wanted her to know it was alright to ask questions, but know that she might not always get answers.

"Well, when we got back to the village, I did a little research and the only person I could find with powers that resembled yours was the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama. Do you think you are related to him in some way?" She asked innocently and Kurama closed his eyes, a small internal battle raging in his head on whether to tell them or not.

Spreading out his senses to be sure there wasn't likely anyone to overhear them, Kurama sighed before opening his reflective gold eyes once more. "It is likely that I am, but without knowing who my parents were for certain, I can't say and even then, it might not clear things up."

Sasuke seemed to be fully drawn into the conversation at that. "I knew you were an orphan, but you mean to tell me you don't know who your parents were, at all? How is that possible? The village keeps close records of all children born in the village, so either you weren't born in Konoha or your heritage was purposely concealed. There weren't that many Uzumaki alive at the time of the Kyuubi attack, so there is no way you couldn't have figured it out." Sasuke accused, as if Kurama was lying to him.

"Hokage-Jiji knows, but he won't tell me. And you're right, I have my suspicions, but all records have mysteriously vanished. However, age me about ten years, remove my birthmarks and I'll give you four guesses as to whom I look like." A sly grin crept across his face and Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction faster than Sakura's in realisation.

"How could we have missed that? I mean it would makes sense that the Yondaime Hokage wouldn't use just any kid to seal the Kyūbi in and the last Jinchuuriki for the Kitsune was an Uzumaki… you don't think that she was his lover do you? I mean, no she had to have been!" Sakura exclaimed, clamping a hand over her mouth and looking around to check that an enemy hadn't heard her.

"Sakura is right, the resemblance is uncanny and the fact your last name is Uzumaki and not Namikaze is just the last clue needed to tie it all together. I can even understand why, the Yondaime had many enemies and Jinchuuriki are often used as weapons, what better way to get back at an enemy than to kidnap their child and turn them into a living weapon? He too was also an orphan, so you're right, even having it confirmed that he was your father doesn't solve anything." Sasuke finished, both of his teammates were looking a little green at the realization and Sakura even hugged the now silver haired boy.

"I'm sorry Naruto, for everything I said and I'm not just saying that because of this. I've been meaning to say it since we got back from Wave Country and I've been a coward for not doing so sooner." She sniffled and a wet spot formed on the shoulder of his tunic as he hugged her back.

"It's alright, I don't blame you or your parents or the villagers. Once I found out about being a Jinchuuriki, I understood their pain and decided that I could endure it and that I would prove to them I wasn't the monster they thought I was." Kurama carded his fingers through her long pink hair, enjoying the waft of floral aroma that her shampoo gave off. "That is why, I will become Hokage."

It was mildly surprising to find that he actually meant it, still meant it and strived for it in a way he hadn't before. Being King of the Makai had never appealed to him, it had been more about fighting on even grounds with his friends than anything. Taking the title of King back then would have meant giving up what little time he had with his precious people, mainly his human mother. Now, he had something precious to protect again and this time the title of leader would insure that he could.

Fundamentally, Kurama was glad to discover he hadn't changed all that much in this incantation and decided it was time to start trusting people again. What better way than with his new team?

"I hadn't actually thought you understood what it meant to be Hokage." Sasuke said, giving him a calculating look and Kurama met his search stare with a determined one. "Perhaps you might actually have what it takes, just don't expect me to treat you any differently." He huffed and Kurama couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him.

"I wouldn't dream of it." He cleared his throat and Sakura pulled back, drying her eyes and straightening. "We'll be the strongest team Konoha's ever produced, just trust me, alright?" Kurama asked and received a firm nod from Sakura and caught a smirk from Sasuke.

"Yeah, I will Naruto-kun." Sakura agreed with a blush and returned to mashing berries.

"Actually, those I consider friends and comrades call me Kurama… I huh, it's a long story, one that can wait until after the exams, but I would like you two to call me that, if you don't mind." Kurama asked, drawing their attention once more as Sasuke helped Sakura doel out the berry mixture into the tin cups that they had in their camping gear.

"I will hold you to that." Sasuke said and Kurama resisted the feeling of familiarity at those words.

Another friend of his had once said something very similar and it stung that Sasuke was likely only so agreeable because Kurama had piqued his interest. He wasn't sure how much he could trust the boy with, but he held firm in the belief he would never know until he tried. Sasuke was heading down a dark path, one he knew all too well and he would do everything in his power to help the boy achieve what he wanted. Then he would be there to pick up the pieces when the young avenger realised it wasn't what he wanted after all.

"This is good, Sakura, the extra calories are a bonus as well." Kurama complemented, it was quite the feat to cover up the blandness of the rations without consuming something that would overtly change their scents. Using natural fruits and saps from the area would even help them blend in a little so long as there wasn't a drastic change in the environment in route to the tower.

"Thanks, Kakashi-Sensei actually gave me the tip, he said if you are going to eat anything other than rations while trying to lay low, then take from the environment you are in. He said it wouldn't fool a summons nose, but with clans like the Inuzuka, if they don't have a ninken with them, it can easily fool their senses and you don't have to eat bland foods all of the time." She explained, saying pretty much what he had been thinking.

"Hn, there isn't much you can do to fool a ninken senses, but it is good advice." Sasuke agreed amicably, nibbling on the rations.

Sakura seemed to glow with the praise and ate all of her own mashed berries and ration bar without prompting. The three of them discussed some training ideas while they ate, keeping an ear out for the sound of their traps being set off or fighting near by. When darkness fell and they still hadn't been discovered, it was agreed that Sakura would take first watch, then Sasuke and lastly Kurama. He told them he only needed a couple of hours sleep to properly function, dashing their concerns when he explained it was a perk of having such large chakra reserves. When they insisted that he get more sleep, he told them that the extra chakra boost he had was why he was so hyperactive and how he managed to get away with his pranks more often than not.

After all, it was the early bird that got the worm and sense he had been up already, his targets hadn't stood a chance.

So sometime around two am, Kurama took watch from a tired Sasuke and settled himself in for the long wait until sunrise when he would wake his other two teammates. At one point he heard a rustling not too far away, but it only turned out to be a snake slithering past that didn't spot him. It was behaving strangely, but most animals in this forest, from what he observed so far, seemed to be odd in one way or another, not completely unlike the shinobi of the village that maintained the training grounds that they lived in.

Kurama could feel the shift in the air before the first rays of sun lightened the sky and he was just reaching out to shake Sakura awake when an almost inaudible thump made him pause. Looking up, he could just make out a shinobi above them, hanging on the underside of a tree branch, poised for the next jump. Holding his breath, Kurama mentally swore when the Kusagakure shinobi, instead of advancing, shifted back on her heels and stiffened with alertness.

Their eyes met, gold reflected back in a cold brown and Kurama knew they were in trouble when the woman's mouth twisted into a pleased smile.

He didn't know how right he was...

* * *

oOo

AN: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think~

Also the next chapter might not be up for two weeks instead of the once a week I have been aiming for. I've recently started a new job and it doesn't leave me a whole lot of free time, so thank you for your patience and I hope you stay tuned.


	5. Predator or Prey

**oOo**

 **CHAPTER V**

 **(Predator or Prey)**

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* * *

oOO

Sakura awoke with a violent start, the wind knocked from her as pain erupted from her spine and the fogginess from sleep was threatening to reclaim her. Choking and gagging, she pulled enough air into her lungs to clear the spots in her vision and nearly collapsed when she pushed herself to her feet.

What was going on?

Pulling a kunai from her pouch even as she scanned the forest around her, she spotted Sasuke in a similar position not far from her. Seeing no immediate danger, she helped her dark haired teammate stand before taking a closer look around, but only one thing stood out.

Kurama was missing.

There was a clang of metal and a thump above them, Sasuke was already looking up and when Sakura's eyes followed his gaze, she gasped in shock. Above them, Kurama and a Kusa-nin were trading fluid blows, matched only by Kurama's determination alone. It was clear from where they stood that the Kusa-nin was far more skilled and was quickly gaining the advantage. Looking to Sasuke, not really sure what to do, she saw he had drawn a kunai of his own and was quickly affixing wire strings to the hilt.

Determined to help out as well, Sakura pulled out an exploding tag and attached it to her kunai, then drew Sasuke's attention. He nodded to her, to let her know he knew where she was going with it, but had to hold off when a gust of wind threatened to overtake them. Sakura had a feeling that the wind jutsu was likely what had thrown them about before, because without using chakra to stick to the ground, she would have easily been blown away. Once they were able to see clearly again and take aim, Sakura hurled the kunai at the Kusa-nin with all of her might.

Naturally the enemy dodged, the Kusa-nin was skilled after all, but Sakura was pleased to note that she hadn't expected the exploding tag and was singed slightly before she fell into Sasuke's wire string trap. The Kusa-nin was restrained against the tree opposite of Kurama and the two of them made quick work of springing up to his side.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Sakura demanded, glaring at the Kusa-nin who didn't look the least bit perturbed that she was at their mercy.

"Where are her teammates?" Sasuke inquired stoically and Sakura looked around nervously on guard, mentally berating herself for not noticing sooner.

"I am unsure, but if they are in the area they are dead, I can only smell death." Kurama surmised with narrowed eyes and a disgusted curl to his lip at the Kusa-nin. The kunoichi had a pleased grin that twisted her face hideously and a sinister chuckle reverberated through her nose.

"You are not wrong, they were useless." The Kusa-nin giggled, pulling manically at her lower eyelid, not an ounce of guilt to be found despite the confession. This Kusa-nin was either lying or a sick freak who took pleasure in causing pain and a wave of paralysing fear washed over Sakura that made her truly believe it was the latter.

She was going to die! There was no escape and whoever this Kusagakure kunoichi was, she was going to kill them, just like she had likely done to her own teammates.

"Your parlor tricks won't work on me. It's just killer intent, Sasuke, Sakura, you can fight it." A calm voice said, smoothing her nerves and building a courage she didn't know she possessed. Biting her lip, Sakura stood her ground, limbs still shaking, but growing steadier by the second.

"Impressive, just with a couple of words they were able to break my paralysis jutsu. Tell me child, where does this foolish bravo come from?" She hissed, tongue slithering from between her lips hungrily.

"You are the fool, Kusa-nin." Kurama said silkily, running a hand through his hair with an arrogant smirk.

"Oh? And why is that?" She intoned, humoring Sakura's teammate, to which she couldn't help but flinch at the blatant lack of fear on both their parts. Kurama was intentionally antagonizing the Kusa-nin and Sakura could tell they were way out of their league, even Sasuke seemed to be thinking the same thing as a nervous bead of sweat rolled down the side of his law.

"The forest…" Kurama motions around him with a sly grin and a malicious gleam in his eyes. "Is my domain. Chikurin no yari! ( _Spear of the bamboo forest_ )" Kurama barked and a spear of bamboo formed in his hand, he struck the branch of the tree they were standing on and for a moment nothing happened.

"Was that supposed to-ack!" Whatever the Kusa-nin had been about to say was cut off as she was skewered by hundreds of bamboo trees.

"Way to go Naruto!" Sakura cheered, forgetting for a moment to call him Kurama, it earned her a smile anyway and a blush formed on her cheeks.

That was until the Kusa-nin began melting, turning into a thick mud that pooled in between the bamboo shoots.

"My my, I was not expecting _that_ in the least." A deep, creepy, distinctively male voice said and the Kusa-nin reappeared, pulling a bamboo spike from his chest, having not completely dodged the attack. "You almost had me, I underestimated you... _do not expect it to happen again_." It sounded more like a threat than the fact that Kurama had overpowered the crossdresser.

From where she stood, Sakura could see the Kusa-nin, if that was even who this man was, preparing for something and her body moved on its own accord. Even though she knew she had some kind of control over her body, it almost felt as if she were floating, barely able to feel her legs propelling her forward. Her fist glowed with energy as it connected with the man's head, extended by his elongated neck and heading straight for Sasuke.

"Cha!" Her battle cry was deafened by the explosion of dust as the Kusa-nin face planted into the forest floor and she managed a weak smile at her teammates shocked looks before her knees wobbled, knocking together before giving out from under her.

Where had that power come from?

It was similar to the first time she felt her chakra as an academy student, only a thousand times stronger and more amazing. Her very soul ached and left her feeling… disorientated, but full of life at the same time. Kurama looped one of her arms around his shoulder and hoisted her to her feet and Sasuke did the same on her other side. She hated feeling as if she were a ragdoll, hung between her teammates like a marionette.

The three of them were separated when a giant snake lunged at them and Sakura plummeted to the ground. Working up the energy to move, she managed to right herself and grip onto the trunk of a tree to slow her decent, but she still rolled harshly when she impacted with the forest floor. Laying there, spent and panting, her vision blurred and a heaviness overtook her eyelids as she fought to stay awake.

The last thing she saw before her vision faded was Sasuke getting bitten by the Kusa-nin and Kurama getting skewered by one of his own bamboo spears before the evil bastard was bashed over the head by what looked like a wooden ore.

Strange… the river was miles from here…

* * *

oOo

Anko was furious, she could feel her Sensei's chakra as if he were standing next to her, but he was still a ways off. She was closing in and the closer she got, the more disconcerted she became. The signs of battle were nothing new in the Forest of Death, it was not only a training ground, but had been privy to many battles of shinobi trying to advance in rank. What worried her was the level of damage done shouldn't be produced by mere Genin, not matter how skilled. The wind marks cut into the trees was a Jounin level jutsu at its weakest and this wasn't done by an amature. She knew this forest like the back of her hand, she had taken her own Chunin exams here and that was when she had fallen in love with the place.

It practically hummed with life, wild, undomesticated and pure. It was her little escape from the negative vibes that plagued the village day in and day out, especially lately. However, as she came upon the scene of a Genin battered and unconscious, her traitor of a teacher getting bashed repeatedly over the head by an enraged bluenette was not what she had expected to see upon arriving. Her full kimono was almost as pink as the female Genin laying unconscious on the forest floor at her feet.

One of the boys was surprisingly still conscious, though his eyes had lost focus and he was gripping a familiar seal on the juncture between his neck and shoulder. The curse seal was eating its way into his chakra network corrupting and poisoning it from the outside in. It was no surprise the boy gave a scream of pain and collapsed, plummeting to the ground, only to be caught by the woman, who was _floating_ on an _ore_. She lowered herself to the ground, the Uchiha's shirt caught on the handle of the paddle and slid off gently next to the pinkette at Anko's feet.

"Who are you?" Anko demanded from the woman, keeping half an eye on the Genin team's third teammate, who had resumed engaging her Sensei in battle. The woman's features turned surprised and she covered her mouth with a dainty hand, eyes blinking in feigned innocence at her.

"Oh my, you can see me?" She asked with a nervous chuckle and Anko couldn't even fathom what kind of question that was.

"I'm not blind you know, are you with Orochimaru?" She demanded, despite how things looked when she arrived, she couldn't be sure of anything and the look of disgust on the woman's face confirmed that the two were at least not allies.

"Heavens no! I'm merely here to investigate what is going on." She said determinedly and turned her back, either bravely or stupidly, on Anko and resumed watching the silver haired Genin go hand to hand on even footing with her Sensei. That was until Anko saw the real Orochimaru pull himself from his hiding spot behind the boy, distracted by the mud clone he was unknowingly fighting.

"Kurama, behind you!" The woman shouted and Anko took off after her Sensei, intercepting the blow that would have decapitated the Genin. The boy, Uzumaki Naruto she realized, was panting and looking at the end of his limits.

"Kid, get your teammates out of here." She growled, not taking her eyes off the man in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Mitarashi-san, but I believe you may need my assistance yet." The boy said calmly, he was no longer panting and had seemed to regained some energy back despite the heavily bleeding wound in his abdomen. There had been a rumor that the boy was proving to be a chakra tank and relentless, but it was another thing to see an injured twelve, almost thirteen, year old boy hold his own against a Sannin, even one who was just toying with him.

"Just get out of here kid, you can hardly stand on your own two feet and you still have an exam to finish." She barked out, making it clear there was no room for negotiation and dodged an attack from Orochimaru in the process.

Naruto hesitated and then hopped down, making a couple of clones to help him carry his teammates before vanishing into the underbrush. The blue haired woman had vanished and for a moment Anko had to wonder if she had imagined her, there was no chakra signature, just an emptiness that she couldn't explain. The woman's energy reminded her vaguely of the feeling someone raised by Edo Tensei gave off… a feeling of power, but also a void of death, though not corrupted like the perversions of nature her Sensei occasionally used.

It didn't matter, the woman was gone and Anko had more important things to focus on.

Like kicking some ass, it was about time she got her due for what he did to her…

* * *

oOo

Waking this time was a little more pleasant for Sakura, though no less jarring. They had been in the middle of battle and the last thing she remembered was her teammates being killed. However, when she looked around in a panic, the dimly lit forest bestowed her boys laying in a patch of moss, mostly sheltered by thick vines and with wide, umbrella-like leaves. Looking down, Sakura found that she too was laid out on a similar pad of greenery and was likely why her back was feeling better after the beating it had suffered.

Kurama must have saved them, she concluded, after finding no other evidence of a fourth person. Shakily she made her way to her feet and wasn't surprised to find the minimal amount of security placed around their temporary camp. Laying out her own traps, she settled next to a sweating Sasuke and was worried at the fever burning away at his flesh.

There was a nasty looking mark on his neck and Sakura had a feeling, judging from the snake summons, that the bite had been poisoned in some way. However, other than reducing the fever and administering an antidote from her generalized medkit, Sakura's knowledge in Iryu-jutsu were subpar at best. Following the directions on the bottle, she gave Sasuke the recommended dosage for a heavy level of poisoning and then dampened a cloth with some water to help cool him down.

It was early morning when anything changed, neither Kurama nor Sasuke had yet to stir, when one of her exploding tags went off. Jumping to her feet, Sakura resisted the urge to just fling a kunai in the direction of the explosion, not wanting to risk giving their position away if the enemy hadn't found them yet, she held onto the handle tightly.

"Come out, we know you're in here." A male voice taunted and Sakura was pretty sure it was that Otogakure shinobi who had attacked Kabuto, the boy with the ninja info cards.

Scoffing to herself, Sakura cut one of the wire strings she had wrapped around the tree next to her and a crack rang through the forest when a log tore from the brush in the direction of where she thought she heard the voice come from. A girl cursed when the log hit and muttered something Sakura missed, telling her she had almost gotten them, but hadn't dealt any injuries. However, she was running out of traps and they were getting closer by the moment. Grabbing another string, Sakura slipped out of her hiding spot and pulled it, closing the bushes around her two teammates, hopefully hiding them until she could return.

Running up a nearby tree, Sakura cut the next wire string setting off a series of explosions behind where the enemy was as she moved in that direction to cover up where she had come from. With any luck she could lead them away from her teammates and once they recovered they could either join her or bring her body back…

Now that was a little more morbid than she was used to thinking. Shaking her head, she pushed such thoughts from her head with a determined growl and sliced her way through the final two wire strings, forcing the enemy to stumble into the clearing she had found the night before. The net she had fashioned from vines caught the girl off guard, but didn't delay her as long as Sakura would have liked.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura pulled out a second kunai and allowed herself to drop from above onto the slightly hunched over boy. His back gave a loud crack as her full body weight took him down, causing her knees and hip to jarr painfully, which forced her into a roll to prevent something from breaking. Recovering quickly, she lashed out with her blade and cut the girl of the team in the leg before she could fully retreat, allowing her a moment to catch her breath as they tried to recover from the surprise attack.

"It's just the girl, I thought she was supposed to be the weakest of the team?" The spiky haired one scoffed, hardly believing the thirty-five and a half kilogram of girl had caused so much damage in so little time. It was only because she didn't weigh a kilogram more that she hadn't broken the third teammates back with her fall. As it was, he was having trouble standing.

Sakura didn't pause to smirk, he had a point, she was the weakest member of her team, but she would do what she needed to in order to save her friends. With a battle cry, she charged the only one she hadn't attacked yet and when he was about to counter her blow, she switched with a log, attacking from another direction.

Again she switched when she lost the advantage. And again. And again until she finally landed a solid blow, to which she followed by many more. The Oto-nin, she found out, had the ability to manipulate sound waves, turning them into weapons. The boy she was currently thrashing, Zaku, could shoot pressurized sound waves from his palms that created a micro explosion. Dozu used sound waves to disorientate his enemies, so even if he didn't land a hit, he still did damage to his opponent. Sakura wasn't sure what Kin, the female of the Otogakure team, could do, but she suspected it would be something along the same lines as her teammates.

Having to retreat back from Zaku's explosion of sound, Sakura lost the advantage, dropping her kunai and had to stall until she could think up a way to get out of the situation she found herself in. Maybe if she was lucky one of the boys would wake up and be in good enough condition to help her.

No, she wasn't a weakling, she could do this, she just needed to use her brain.

Switching with a log again, she stayed hidden among the leaves, not that it would help her much if she stayed. Creating a bunshin, she sent it out to run past them, diving as if to go after the kunai she had dropped and then she took off once their backs were turned, pulling back her fist and catching Zaku in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. Unfortunately, Kin recovered as quickly as she had from the other traps and snatched Sakura by her hair.

The pinkette didn't hesitate, turning just enough to get the right angle, Sakura sliced through her hair and carved a gash across Kin's chest, just in time for a green blur to swoop in and block a blow from Dosu. Turning, Sakura was surprised to find Rock Lee turning to smile at her before tilting sideways from the sound having ruptured his eardrums. Swaying on his feet, Lee managed to somehow stay standing and fend off a couple of attacks before having to retreat back to Sakura's side as Kin jumped over to her teammate's side.

"Lee, what are you doing here?" Sakura demanded, trying not to sound too angry. She had been kicking ass and was handling things just fine!

"But Sakura-chan, it is ungentlemanly of me to leave such a fine maiden to fend for herself!" Lee declared, taking her hand and kneeling before her. "Sweet blossom, would you grant me the honor of-"

Sakura didn't let him finish whatever nonsense he had been about to spout, ceasing it with an angry blow to the back of his head. It sent him swirling to the ground with a woozy groan, not fully recovered from having his equilibrium compromised.

"I AIN'T A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS, CHA!" She snapped, grinding her fist into the palm of her other hand and snarling very unladylike at her fellow Konoha-nin.

Dosu looked at her, at Lee on the ground, then to his two injured comrades, before holding up their scroll. "Here, let us leave and it's yours." He bargained and Sakura gave him the stink eye, tired and pissed about how things had been going since they entered the forest.

"Fine, drop it there and leave before I change my mind." She sneered, crossing her arms with a confidence she hadn't known she possessed. For some reason she felt as if she should be complaining about being too old for this shit, but she brushed it off. Kakashi-Sensei was always quick to remind them they were just baby Genin, still green as the leaves their headbands represented.

Dosu dropped the scroll as if it were a steam-bun fresh out of the cooker, hoisted Zaku up and turned tail before she really did change her mind.

Strange, Inner Sakura had been rather quiet… maybe she was finally growing out of her imaginary friend, finally having found real ones to replace her… that had to be it, right? Besides, why should she miss the running commentary in her own head? It was almost as annoying as listening to Naruto before the wave mission…

"You have truly become a beautiful blossom, Sakura-chan." Lee gushed and she hated that it did stir a sense for pride in her, even just a little.

"Thanks Lee, but you should get back to your teammates, they're probably worried about where you ran off to." Lee seemed to perk up at that and was glad to hear that she was worried about him, but she didn't really care.

After all, she had her own team to tend to and they needed her more than Lee did.

"You are right, my beautiful flower! Please, if you need anything in the future, do not hesitate to ask and I shall do everything in my power to make it happen!" Lee declared and Sakura resisted rolling her eyes, instead settling for a smile that was more of a grimace than anything.

"Thanks, Lee, but I really need to get back to my team, see you at the tower." She promised, snatching up the abandoned scroll. Internally she was cheering that she had managed to, almost, single handedly replace the one they had lost to that snake freak.

Now, just to get the other scroll and get her team through this hellhole in more or less one piece...


	6. The Turning Tide

**oOo**

 **CHAPTER VI**

 **(The Turning Tide)**

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 **=(^^)=**

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* * *

oOo

Everything was sticky and too warm. The air was thick and settled over the forest floor heavily. His shirt clung to him, damp from sweat and the ambient moisture cloying around him. His body ached in a way he had experienced only once before, after what had seemed like days of watching his family slaughtered over and over again.

The literal pain in the neck was new though.

It was as if he had been recently branded, it burned, but wasn't painful enough to prevent movement. A lingering bitterness clung to his tongue and Sasuke had to wonder who had treated him. Cracking his eye open, he was greeted with multiple shades of green, leaves illuminated by the sun rays peeking down through them. It had been nearing dusk when they had been attacked, so he had been unconscious for at least eight hours. More than likely ten given how high the sun was at the moment.

Turning his head just enough to observe his surroundings, the first thing his eyes fell on was Kurama. The silver haired fox was asleep next to him, the smell of antiseptics just barely noticeable over the earthy moss he was laying on. Twisting his head the other direction gave him an eye full of a red, cloth covered lap. Sakura was lightly dozing next to him, her hands rested in her lap, kunai almost slipped completely from her grip and her now bobbed off pink hair dangling over her closed pink lashes…

What had happened while he was out?

She stirred as he pushed himself up and he bit back a grunt of pain as his shoulder gave a sharp jolt. Rubbing the spot gently, he inhaled and exhaled, waiting for the throbbing to stop in order to keep his face neutral as Sakura's sea-foam colored eyes cracked open then widened with alertness.

"Sasuke-kun, how are you feeling?" She asked, retrieving one of the water canteens and handing it to him.

He drank several hearty gulps, before taking a needed breath, coughing slightly from having rushed and almost inhaling the cool liquid. It had been refilled and had a hint of whatever had been used to filter it, likely purification tablets, but it was refreshing so he didn't complain. Taking another long draw from the bottle, he accepted the ration bar she offered him and nibbled on the one end of it as he tried to remember exactly what had happened the day before.

"Sasuke?" The uncertainty in Sakura's voice drew him from his straying thoughts. He swallowed the dusty bits of ration bar head had been halfheartedly chewing and finally looked up at her.

"I'm okay, I think… just trying to remember what happened." He admitted and she launched into a short, but detailed, explanation of what happened. It lacked the usual gushing she would normally spew and he found himself trying to tell if maybe she was an impostor or not.

"-and then I woke up here. I think Kurama carried us here before passing out himself." Fingering her hair, Sakura looked away with a blush. "I set up some extra traps and tried to keep your fever down, but there wasn't much I could do. Everything was okay for the most part until one of the traps were triggered and I had to leave you guys for a little bit. The team that attacked was too close, so I had to lead them away from you, but once we were a safe enough distance away, I was able to beat them up no problem. They were pretty pathetic if an old geezer like me wasn't challenged. Then Rock Lee stole my thunder and swooped in yammering about saving the day, treating me like some little old damsel in distress."

"And you weren't?" Sasuke countered, earning a glare that he would never admit made his danger senses go off. It was strange how she kept referring to herself as if she were an old woman, making him lean more toward the imposter theory by the minute.

"Of course I wasn't! I'm not useless you know, I'm trying to pull my own weight on this team. This isn't the Land of Waves, Sasuke, I'm trying to take my training serious now and be an actual member of this team I-..." She inhaled, calming herself and the doubt Sasuke had a few moments ago vanished, even a fake wasn't this good. "I don't want to lose you two, I care about you and I want to do my part in keeping you safe, not rescuing you, but having each other's backs."

Who knew she had a spine?

Sasuke was caught up in his own head trying to figure out when this had happened, when she became more assertive and wasn't fawning over him. The land of Waves was likely the beginning, it wasn't until after Naruto had changed to Kurama that it really became apparent they too had began to act differently. Her lack of fangirling over him should have been a big indicator something was up and he hadn't missed the shift in his own thoughts or actions either.

He didn't like it.

His resolve was wavering and these people were holding him back, would hold him back. If he grew more attached to them now, then when the time came to go after his brother, he might not be able to leave them behind. It's not that he wouldn't want to settle down someday, maybe not with Sakura, but someone he could have a kid or two with. Hell he'd even settle for just being able to enjoy the recently friendly banter he and Kurama seemed to share, but this was something he had to do on his own. He had to prove, not only to the village, but himself, that he was able to restore the Uchiha name to its former glory. If the Uchiha clan had any chance of being revived, then he had to be strong enough to defeat his brother.

Otherwise, what would stop Itachi from ending the life of his wife and children, or slaughtering everything he held dear for a second time if he didn't stop him?

"Hn." He said, neither agreeing or disagreeing. It would be good for her, she and Kurama would have a better chance of surviving when he leaves to go after his brother if she could defend herself.

Pain blossomed on the back of his head and he stared incredulously at the pinkette glaring at him.

"Don't you 'Hn' me, you have vocal cords use them." Sakura seemed to shrink in on herself and worry her bottom lip. "Sorry, I don't know why I just did that…"

Rubbing the back of his head, Sasuke shrugged, she really was acting different and maybe he was jumping the gun ' _What was a gun?_ ' on the whole situation. "It's alright, I've been feeling… off myself, it all started after the last battle with Haku and Zabuza."

This seemed to be the right thing to say as she visibly sagged, likely relieved that she wasn't the only one experiencing a mental breakdown. Not that it made Sasuke feel better, last time he had checked he was mentally stable, if a little too focused on his self imposed mission. It wasn't alright and the only person who may have answers was currently unconscious.

"Get some sleep, we'll give Kurama a couple more hours and then we'll try to wake him. In that time recover some of your energy." She seemed hesitant and Sasuke set the canteen down, stood, stretched and popped his neck. Doing some quick stretches, he raised an eyebrow at her when she still hadn't moved, sitting there looking as if she were going to argue. "I'm not tired anymore and you aren't going to be any help to the team if you're dead on your feet. Rest and I'll wake you in a couple of hours."

Finally she laid down and it wasn't long into his warm up that her breathing evened, settling her into a fitful sleep. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than what she had likely gotten while tending to his fever and Kurama's wounds.

He had never seen his silver haired teammate this motionless before, injured as he was, Sasuke wasn't surprised. There was no sign of fever and his breathing was steady, so he should be waking up soon, hopefully in time to finish the exam. Sakura had somehow scored them a new scroll and they still had three and a half days to obtain another.

Not that it made him feel any less anxious. The longer they took, the less likely they would find the scroll they needed. It wasn't beyond the possibility that a strong team could or would collect more than the two necessary scrolls in order to eliminate the competition. In fact, Sasuke would be worried for the future of the Hidden Villages if they didn't, it's what he would do if given the chance.

Unfortunately they weren't the strongest team out there, nor were they the weakest, but they had suffered a heavy beating from the Kusa-nin. Who or whatever he was, had set them back, delaying them from an early finish, to an average completion time. The bite mark on his neck gave a jolt just thinking about the creep and he hissed quietly at the fact he had been too weak to stop it from happening. Not that anyone in his position would have been able to anticipate that their enemy might have been after something other than their scroll or stronger than a genin. It was a lesson Sasuke learned the hard way and he didn't plan on letting his guard down ever again.

What was it their Sensei was always rattling on about, look underneath the underneath?

Sakura stirred in her sleep and he held his breath through the pain for a moment, releasing in when the stinging eased a fraction. Panting as quietly as he could, he rubbed his shoulder and rotated his neck, pausing only when he noticed Kurama shift, rolling over enough to get a look at him. The golden eyes staring back at him were reflective in the shade, the Kusa-nin's weren't much different once he revealed his true face, but the resemblance ended there.

The two of them didn't say anything, neither willing to ask if the other was okay nor swap pleasantries. They almost hadn't made it out alive, even Sasuke could tell the snake freak had been playing with them. Kurama's knowing stare made a boiling rage well up inside of him and he almost couldn't keep it from showing on his face. It pissed him off that Kurama, formerly the deadlast, had majorly outclassed him. Hell, even Sakura had outclassed him, getting a replacement scroll and defending him as if he were the damsel in distress.

Standing, Sasuke handed Kurama the canteen, looking away when his teammate uncapped it to take a drink, instead he started packing up what little Sakura had gotten out to make camp. A breeze rustled the leaves around them and though he didn't pause like a rookie, he did listen to make sure it was in fact the wind that made the noise. It would be too easy for a team to get the drop on them in their weakened state and maybe he was being paranoid… then again there were people out to get them, so perhaps overly cautious was the right term in this case. He scanned the surrounding area when no more sounds followed, but nothing jumped out to attack them, so he continued casually packing.

Satisfied that he had done what he could for the moment, he gently called Sakura's name to wake her. It took a couple of tries, which wasn't a surprise with how tired she had been and held back his irritation at how slow she was moving while they finished clearing the camp. It was pushing late afternoon by the time they started traveling, Kurama was a little slower moving than Sakura and the pace frustrated him. The throbbing in his neck wasn't getting stronger, but it was irritating enough it gave him a headache that he couldn't seem to shake. There was no helping it and in the end their slow pace worked in their favor as they came across the silver haired boy with the ninja-info-cards being attacked.

The Amegakure shinobi that attacked them multiplied, water clones taking over the clearing in a last ditch effort to steal their remaining scroll. Kurama created an whip from the rose he seemed to pull from thin air and decimated a large number of the clones. Sasuke and Sakura took out half that many between the two of them, but Sasuke expected that, they were low on chakra and Kurama was a powerhouse, able to bounce back even though he had been injured hours beforehand.

Team seven managed to recover the scroll they needed from the Ame-nin and Kabuto, grateful for being rescued, agreed to show them the way to the tower. As they progressed through the forest, they discussed what they were likely to expect when reaching the tower. Kabuto brought up a good point that teams would be lying in wait to ambush stragglers, just like the Ame-nin had. The four of them agreed that it was a bad idea to let their guard down, even when they think they're home free. In the end they had been over prepared and made it into the tower with only one minor battle that involved an over zealous Kiba, a flustered Hinata and an exacerbated Shino, though it was hard to tell with his thick shades… maybe Sasuke was projecting a little.

Kabuto and his team parted ways with them once they entered the tower and team seven was greeted by Iruka-Sensei to congratulate them for passing the second stage of the exam. Sakura had eyed him, but in a show of solidarity didn't say anything about what happened in the forest and they were allowed to rest. The remaining time until the second stage was officially over was spent trying to figure out who that shinobi had been and what he had been doing in the forest of death.

"I think we should tell Sensei at least, he might know a way to remove that weird mark on your neck." Sakura stated firmly and Kurama seemed to agree with her as he leaned against the wall tiredly.

"Perhaps, it's clearly meant to do something, there is a slim chance it could kill you Sasuke, but in the end it is your decision. I speak only for myself, but I will try to respect what you choose." Kurama offered, running a hand through his hair and scratching at a silver ear when it twitched.

"I've said my peace, Kurama is right, it is your choice and we trust you Sasuke."

Their confidence in him stung a little, he had been thinking of leaving them, he still was, and here they were proving to have his back when he needed it most. That snake-freak had done something to him and whatever it was couldn't be good. Even though Sasuke suspected the freak had something worse planned for him than a slow death, his teammates were right, he needed to have it looked at sooner rather than later. At the very least maybe someone could figure out how to make it stop drumming an annoying rhythm out in his head.

"I'll tell him when we see him next, I don't like the thought of what that bastard could have done to me." He shuddered involuntarily, pleased to see he wasn't the only one.

"He's likely after your doujutsu, the sharingan is a tempting ability to posses." Kurama reasoned and Sasuke agreed wholeheartedly, only for the simple fact it looked like the man wanted more than just his eyes. He couldn't explain the feeling, but he likened it to a predator having snared it's prey.

"Well he can try and when he does I'm gonna knock those overly sharp teeth down his throat!" Sakura growled, pounding her fist into the palm of her other hand. "No one messes with my teammates and gets away with it."

Both he and Kurama blanched at that and Sasuke would never admit it, but Sakura kind of scared him a little… a lot. It's part of the reason he never held an interest for her. When she wasn't being a stupid fangirl, she was brash in a way that reminded him a little too much of himself; though he would never say those things out loud even if he was thinking them. It made for a great team dynamic, but would destroy any relationship she fantasized about having with him.

Thankfully her infatuation with him was slowly drifting away, something he could thank Kurama for and did, secretly in his head. Not only had Sakura's attention been snared by the silver fox (1), but he had seen one of his fangirls swoon over his teammate when they returned to the village from Wave country. Not that it changed how the other villagers seemed to despise Kurama's very existence, but there was a definite change in the female's perception of him, even if it was just superficial.

They were brought out of their regrouping when there was a knock on the door to their room. The proctor instructed them to meet down in the stadium now that the second stage was officially over. Standing and gathering his things, Sasuke led the three of them down to line up with the other competitors for the final round.

Only to find out it was a preliminary round. It was designed to weed out about half of the competitors so that the final matches don't bore the dignitaries and villagers who would be attending the matches a month from now. This was fine by him, he beat his opponent with little fanfare and paid just enough attention to see that his teammates passed, informing their Sensei of the mark on his neck when they re-joined him up on the observation platform.

He ended up missing some Oto-nin getting crushed to death by Sabaku no Gaara. Apparently it was the second to last match up and it had been bloody, so the final match was held in a clearing just outside the tower while a crew came in and cleaned up what was left of the Otogakure genin. Sakura was still ranting on about it when he was released from getting the curse mark sealed, the second seal was to prevent it from taking over or spreading, but Sasuke stopped caring after he was told the mark wasn't designed to kill him. Eventually Sakura and Kurama agreed things could have turned out worse and decided they were going to become stronger together.

They had a month to train and he was going to tap every available resource he could get his hands on, starting with Kurama and his Sensei. They were just about to go celebrate when a Anbu wearing a bird mask dropped down in front of them, halting their commute to the training grounds.

"You three are to report to torture and interrogation."

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AN: I can't apologies enough for the delay, I've been working non stop and haven't had any spare time until recently. Updates should go back to being semi-regular now.

(1) Ha! If Sasuke only knew… In the voice of Yoda: "Youthful he may appear, but young he is not." I don't know why that popped into my head, but there you have it.

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Post AN: I don't normally do this, but this time I am going to make an exception because the reviewer is a guest and I wish they could get a response even though they lack an account.

To FanReader,

First things first, thank you for taking the time to review. I enjoy reading all my reviews and reply to the ones that I can. Second, you make very good points and though I would have prefered Kurama having red hair, the person I accepted the challenge from requested the silver hair specifically, so this will not be changed from the way it is. As for the other things you have suggested, just know the plot is already set and I have only this to say…

Like minds and all that thinking stuff.

I won't confirm what is or what will be, but there might have been one or two things that hit the broad side of the barn and a few that hit the nail on the head, some others were off or wouldn't work for this story, but I enjoyed them and might keep them in mind for future stories.

Thank you to all reviewers who are guests and just know I do read your reviews even if you do not receive a reply.

Murakami no Kitsune


	7. Peony of Death

**oOo**

 **CHAPTER VII**

 **(Peony of Death)**

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It was truly amazing how much could happen in so little time. There was the wave mission that didn't end so terribly and now the chunin exams. Somehow, team seven had managed to hobble their way through the forest of death and make it into the final round. Kurama knew that the true reason they were able to do that and it wasn't due to their awesome shinobi skills.

He was currently being grilled by the purple haired proctor about an outside source helping them. Naturally, he denied any knowledge of the blue hair woman, though he in fact knew her quite well in another lifetime. However, they would have to prove her existence before that happened. After all, it wasn't as if he could just explain that a millennium old grim reaper popped in and saved their lives. Shinobi could accept a great deal of things, but even he couldn't risk exposing himself as something other than a simple genin at the moment. The body he now possessed was as weak as the human form of Shuichi Minamino had been when he first met Yusuke, the spirit detective at the time. He couldn't afford another battle so soon after the trip through the forest of death.

"You're not even listening to me whelp!" The woman, Anko, growled and locked her arm around his neck. He thought he felt something brush his right ear, but he couldn't be sure.

"I am listening, I'm just not giving you answers you are satisfied with." Certain he felt a tug on one of his ears, he glared at Ibiki who just stood there with his arms crossed, watching. Kurama would bet dollars to donuts that the interrogator found the whole thing amusing.

"Yeah, that's right and if one of you little maggots doesn't start explaining what went on soon, then your lives are going to get a lot more difficult." She barked and Kurama inhaled deeply and met her eye to eye. He might have been more intimidated if it weren't for the fact she kept molesting his ears.

"You're a beautiful woman and clearly a powerful kunoichi in order to take on that Kusa-nin on your own, I respect that. However, you are mistaken in thinking my teammates or I had anything to do with this attack. If it weren't for the fact genin are legally adults, I can assure you that man was one touch too many away from being a pedophile." Kurama sneered and the purple haired woman glared at him for a second longer before her face cracked and a cackling snort escaped her.

"Pff-hahaha! A pedophile!" She clutched her sides and giggled for a moment before throwing an arm over Kurama's shoulders, giving Ibiki a mischievous grin. "Well?"

"All three of them said about the same thing, their stories collaborate each other and Orochimaru isn't likely to have made previous contact with them before this incident." He stated with a bored sigh. "You're doing the paperwork for this." He grumbled, turning on his heel and marching out of the room, clearly stating that this had been as much of a waste of time as Kurama had thought it was.

"Alright cutie, you're cleared, just fill out your report on the incident and then you can get to your training for the final exam…" She huffed, sobering up and stacking the folders she had thrown down at some point during the interrogation and Kurama stood, straightening the wrinkles out of his clothes. When he looked up at her paused form, he could see her eyes roaming over him and a faint smirk threatened to tug at the corners of his mouth.

"I did mention legal adult, right?" He all but purred and a part of him that relished in her clear attraction preened when her eyes filled with lust.

Puberty was clearly going to be just as fun as the other two times around.

"Tempting, but I don't do wet behind the ear genin, who haven't proven they can keep up with me. No matter how hot their ears are." She teased before scooping up the folders and sauntering out of the interrogation room.

Kurama blinked, not sure if she had been serious or not and decided it was in his best interest not to stick around and find out. The only reason he was wet behind the ears was because she kept drooling over them and he didn't feel like correcting her at the moment. Not that she was likely to believe him.

Sasuke and Sakura wondered out of torture and interrogation the same time he did, Sakura gave him a weak smile and a wave before saying she was going home to get some rest. Sasuke was abducted by Kakashi and Ebisu was pushed off on him, though the sunglasses wearing man stuck around just long enough to tell him that he wasn't teaching a monster before vanishing. Not that Kurama was complaining, Ebisu didn't have the spine needed to challenge him and he was possibly a worse teacher than Mizuki and that was saying a lot considering the traitor had intentionally sabotaged his younger self's training.

Contemplating on making a leisurely trip through the forest of death to find the more carnivorous plants hidden within, Kurama spied something out of place. There was a man perched in a tree, giggling and peeking in on the women's bathhouse. Frowning Kurama sent a wave of demonic energy, yoki, into the tree and it gave a violent groan before flinging the unsuspecting victim into the middle of the hot springs just outside the bathhouse.

Not bothering to check if the man survived, Kurama turned heel and decided to settle for finding something to eat. He had a small amount of cash on him and he was looking forward to something warm to fill his stomach. He was certain it was this new body, but ramen tasted so much better than it had in his previous lives and he wasn't one to pass up a good thing when he got his hands on it.

Ambling tiredly toward the ramen stand, he was waylaid by a steaming, angry form of the man that had been spying on the bathhouse. Frowning, Kurama stepped around him, ignoring the shouts for him to stop in favor of settling into Ichiraku's booth and ordering a miso ramen. The man stomped in, the geta he wore clacking on the wooden floor, dripping water as he went. Teuchi went to say something, but stopped when he saw who the man was. That piqued Kurama's interest, especially when the man plopped down, ordered some sake. He brushed his white mane of hair over his shoulders as if he had been to this stand a million times and was comfortable enough to relax.

"That wasn't very nice gaki, if you knew who I was then you would think twice about crossing me."

The man boasted and Kurama gave him a sidelong glance, he looked familiar, almost as if he had read about him somewhere before. He mused that it was likely the man was in an old bingo book that he had gotten his hands on as a child, which meant the old pervert was probably famous. Two questions remained, what was he doing in Konoha and why was he openly peeking in on naked women?

"I am down a sensei at the moment. So unless you're going to make yourself useful and teach me skills that will help me through the chunin exams, then I don't care who you are." It was perhaps a tad cold of him, but Kurama had no tolerance for lecherous perverts.

"I am the Great Jiraiya! Toad Sage and all around ladies man!" He gloated, standing with a foot on his stool and striking what he likely thought was a manly pose, though it only succeeded in making him look as if he were a morn.

Slurping his noodles down, Kurama thanked Teuchi, handed over enough to cover his bill and left the man standing there in an awkward position. It didn't take long for him to come to his senses and take off after Kurama, that was the first clue that their "chance" meeting wasn't so much an 'act of fate' as he had first thought. Though after living as long as he had, it shouldn't be a surprise, he had been on the manipulating side and he had to give the man props, he was persistent in a subtle way. If Kurama didn't know better, he would assume the man was stalking him as revenge for interrupting his peeping. However, his lack of anger and accusation gave him away and it wasn't likely the women he was really paying attention to.

"Are you even listening gaki!" Jiraiya shouted and Kurama's ears actually ached for a moment from the booming sound. His hearing had been good before his transformation, but now it was easily doubled.

"How could I not, with you shouting in my ears?" Kurama grumbled, shooting a withering glare at the white haired man, who was miraculously dry now, not that he really cared. "I'm not going to apologies for busting you for peeping on vulnerable women, so unless your "greatness" is going to teach me something useful, leave me be."

Kurama hadn't really expected the man to consider his demand seriously, after all, they were strangers and Jiraiya was of questionable moral standing. However, much to Kurama's horror, the man struck up a thinking pose, complete with imaginary brainstorming music, likely created through a subtle genjutsu. Kurama fluxed his chakra to break the illusion and began slinking away in hopes to escape whatever madness the man was cooking up.

"Wait up!"

Luck was not on his side this day. He really did want to get that stroll in the forest of death in sooner rather than later.

"Hey, I said wait." The guy grumbled, standing in front of him to halt his escape. "Look, I know who you are and I suspect you've figured that out or you wouldn't be so dismissive of me." Jiraiya grumbled something and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm the one your Sensei actually asked to train you, but I wasn't going to do it… you see, I have huh… commitment issues and… well, anyway, after your little demonstration there's no way I could pass up training you." The guy rushed to say, fearful he would try to leave again and Kurama raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

"And what changed?" He challenged, he wasn't going to put up with someone who was going to treat him like everyone else in the village did, but there was something about the guy that screamed at Kurama to listen.

"Well…" Jiraiya hedged, shifting from one foot to the other lazily. "I only teach people I think have potential to be strong and I didn't believe Kakashi when he told me about what you did in Wave country. Until recently your track record was that of a snot nosed brat, whose greatest achievement was painting the Hokage monument."

"Oh really?" Kurama purred dangerously and the man had the decency to look nervous, especially when his yoki started leaking out in his anger. "I will have you know, I was an academy student when I did that. One whose shinobi training was sabotaged, who didn't know how to use chakra to climb, who wore 'kill me orange', who evaded Anbu and Jonin, all in broad daylight. Is that skilled enough for you?"

The bastard had the gall to look as if didn't believe him and Kurama's eyes narrowed further and the Sage's expression changed. Striking another thinking pose- ' _what is with him and poses?'_ , Jiraiya rubbed the almost invisible stubble on his chin and studied Kurama for a long moment before seeming to come to a decision.

"I can't tell if you're lying, but either way I think you have potential, so what do you say, want to learn from a master?" He asked and now it was Kurama's turn to measure the man standing before him.

Perverted habits aside, Kurama had no idea who this person was and there was a good chance that he was someone strong. When he managed to finally see past the goofy exterior, there was a hard edge to Jiraiya that you could easily miss unless you went looking for it. Whoever he was, it was likely he was on at least the same level as Kakashi and even though Kurama was a great fighter when it came to hand to hand combat, in shinobi skills he still came up short. It would have been interesting to see how these humans would have measured up to powerful yokai of his time.

"I accept." Kurama bowed formally and Jiraiya huffed at the formality, but he too bowed to show that he meant it when he said he would take Kurama on as an apprentice.

"Great, now that we got that out of the way, let's go to one of the training grounds so I can start the first step in your training." Without waiting for an answer, Jiraiya took off toward one of the training grounds and Kurama thanked whatever lucky stars he had that he was born with deep reserves of energy in this life. Though that didn't prevent the mental fatigue he was feeling, he should have the energy to survive for a couple more hours.

They stopped upstream of the creek near the bridge team seven usually held their morning- _noon_ meetings. Jiraiya took the giant scroll from his back and laid it out carefully on the ground. As he unrolled it, Kurama could see several names on the scroll, the last two of which were Jiraiya and the Yondaime Hokage's names respectively, which could only mean one thing.

This was summoning scroll.

"This is a summoning scroll." Jiraiya stated, proving Kurama's assessment correct. "To see if you are worthy of the Toad contract, sign your name here, then put your finger prints below it in blood and then do these hand seals."

Carefully he showed Kurama the proper seals without the blood needed to summon with or the chakra. Signing his new name, then biting his thumb, he smeared it on his other fingers before pressing them into the paper below his name. Doing the necessary hand seals, Kurama slammed his hand down on the grounb and blinked at the smoke cleared…

Only for nothing to appear.

"Huh?" Jiraiya said, waving the smoke away and peering down at the paper where Kurama's name had vanished. "That's never happened before, hold on a moment."

Jiraiya's hands flashed through the hand seals with practiced ease and slammed down on the ground at his feet. A swirl of ink seals spread from his hand and then erupted into a smoke screen. When the fog cleared, a short, wrinkled toad wearing an old robe stood before the two of them. Coughing, it cleared it's throat and then glared up at the two of them, lips in a toothless pout.

"Jiraiya, what is the meaning of this?" The toad croaked grumpily.

"Sorry for summoning you Pa, but Naruto's name vanished of the summoning contract and I figured I would ask the wisest toad I know." The old toad let out a scoff, clearly not impressed by the toadyism.

"The answer is simple, we do not allow non-humans hold contracts with us." Pa stated, casually clasping his hands behind his back. "Though his humanity is still lingering, there is hardly anything left of his reiki. Between the shift in his aura and the influence of the Kyuubi no Kitsune's power, there is barely a drop left of his humanity remaining."

Frowning, Kurama crouched down and took a closer look at the toad, catching a familiar scent on the wisend amphibian, he inhaled the nearly forgotten smell. "You're from the Makai."

Surprise blossomed on Pa's face and he pointed an accusing finger at the haired silver kitsune. "How do you know that name? You are the purest of your kind I have seen in centuries and the generation who would know of such a name, has long since passed."

"They have, but I'm an unusual case." Kurama stated, carefully shooting Jiraiya a glance to be certain he wasn't going to attack. "However, reincarnation is a bit tricky for yokai, especially one as old as I. A near death experience mixed with another kitsune's chakra kind of jump started my past memories."

"Reincarnation? That's how you're going to explain things?" Jiraiya asked incredulously and Kurama opened his mouth to respond, only to be beat to it.

"Really, I know for a fact your lying skills are much better than this, you didn't have to tell them the truth you know." The three of them looked up at the sound of the new comer's chime like voice and their eye fell on a bubbly bluenette.

"Botan."

"Who else would I be? I know we didn't get to chat much last time, but It's been far too long, Kurama" She grinned, sticking her tongue out at Jiraiya with a wink and flashing him a peace sign.

"JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" Jiraiya shouted, she had literally appeared out of thin air and Kurama wasn't surprised at the shinobi's overreaction. Most were just paranoid on a good day and today was clearly shaping up to be strange for the Toad Sage.

"Oh, you know... just your friendly neighborhood shinigami!"

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AN: Thank you or reading and please let me know what you think!


	8. Kakashi's Very Peculiar Day

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 **CHAPTER VIII**

 **(Kakashi's Very Peculiar Day)**

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Kakashi really wasn't sure how he always got dragged into other people's madness.

His day had started out normal enough. He had gotten out of bed, skipped a shower, fed his ninken and left the dog flap unlocked so they could come and go as they pleased. After a quick breakfast, he spent a few minutes silently telling the memorial stone his day, because almost everyone he cared about was either dead or away on missions. He planned on meeting Sasuke late morning for training… after getting lunch, doing his laundry and running a quick errand for Izumo… so it was more like mid afternoon when he finally arrived.

Well, no one ever accused him of being punctual, at least not since…

However, instead of finding Sasuke impatiently waiting for him, he found his pink haired student sweaty and standing there looking bored.

"Yo." He said in way of greeting, she blinked boredly at him, but stood up in attention at his arrival. "There's no team meeting today, I was just going to meet with Sasuke this afternoon."

"So you didn't plan on showing up at dawn like you told Sasuke last night, figures. We got hungry so Sasuke agreed to get us something to eat and I volunteered to stay in case you actually showed up." Sakura gave him a withering glare and crossing her arms grumpily at him.

"Ah, well do you know about how much longer he'll be?" At his nervous smile, Sakura looked as if she were going to answer, but Sasuke dropped down beside them answering the his question.

"Looks like I'm just in time." He said, handing Sakura a bento box and a container of mochi. "Here."

"Well, now that you've decided to show up, we can start training." Kakashi reprimanded hypocritically, earning him Sasuke's ire, really he had every right to be angry, but it didn't change the fact time was wasting.

"I KNEW THAT BRAT WAS LYING!" A purple and fleshy colored blur shouted as it whizzed past. Instinctively his hand shot out and nabbed the collar of the barreling form, halting its progress with a swift jerk. " _Let me go_ Hatake, or you can join your student in the belly of the shinigami when I get my hands on him!" Anko snarled, all but frothing at the mouth.

"Do you mind calming down and telling me what kind of trouble Naruto-kun has gotten himself into this time?" Trying to calm the mad woman down was pointless, but he didn't want to escalate the situation either.

"I'll tell you exactly what that snake tongued bastard did! He denied all knowledge of knowing a blue haired woman, but I just got reports of her having a conversation with not only Naruto, but Jiraiya of the Sannin! Really Hatake, you should keep a closer eye on your students!" She snapped, shimmying out of her trench coat, giving the three of them a full view of more than just her ample cleavage.

"Put your jacket back on, no one wants to see your saggy tits flopping around." Kakashi's nose bleed dried up so fast the blood that had escape retreated back up his nostrils in terror.

There was silence… very dangerous silence.

Had he just heard his sweet, innocent, virgin, student call Anko's breast saggy? Sakura didn't so much as have a blush nor a curled lip of disgust on her face. Sasuke was blushing lightly and had averted his eyes as to be expect, but then he too did something weird. Turning his head, Sasuke raised a delicate eyebrow at Sakura, eyes leveling at her own chest with a contempt smirk.

"Says the flatchested plank."

Anko's mouth unhinged and dropped, backing away from the almost demonic aura wafting off in waves of miasma from his pink haired student.

"You better watch it pipsqueak, you maybe fast, but even you have to sleep eventually." Sakura threatened and Sasuke scoffed.

"I'm not afraid of you, hag." Sasuke scoffed and Sakura seemed momentarily confused at the retaliation, before the two of them shrugged at each other.

"Your students are weird, Hatake." Wind knocked deftly from Anko's sails, she snatched her jacket back and slid her arms back into the sleeves.

"Believe it or not, this is actually a little bit more weird than normal. Ever since I took them on their first mission out of the village, it's almost as if they've changed." Kakashi said as his two students began arguing again and dissolved into an impromptu spar.

"You don't think…" Anko trailed off, implying that they might be infiltrators. "I mean, that silver haired student of yours lied about knowing that blue haired chick, what else are they hiding?" She mused and Kakashi sighed.

"I don't think Sasuke and Sakura know what is happening to them and I do believe they are Sasuke and Sakura." Kakashi said with more confidence than he felt, said students were quietly trying to figure out when that argument had been about. "Naruto on the other hand I know it's him, you can't just fake being what he is." Anko gave him a knowing, sidelong glance. "However, Naruto is hiding something and I asked Jiraiya to get to the bottom of it, you shouldn't have to worry, if that blue haired woman is anything to worry about, then he will take care of it."

"Tch, and here I thought you were retired, still working behind the scenes I see Captain." She jibed, poking him in the side teasingly.

"Once and always, Mitarashi-kun, I'm just reassigned at the moment." His eye upturned in a faked smile, one meant to convey mischievousness at his deviously clever way around retirement.

"Yeah yeah, old dog never learns new tricks." She grumbled.

"Tut tut, that is a common misnomer and I'm learning new things every day. One of which is not to underestimate Sakura." They both winced when Sakura landed a hit to the back of Sasuke's head, making a loud cracking sound as it sent his face plummeting to the ground. "Alright you two, enough. Sakura, I need Sasuke for training, please try not to murder him."

"If he can't handle a few bruises, then his wimpy ass doesn't deserve training." She huffed, picked up her lunch and smiled at Sasuke who was just getting up. "Thanks for lunch Sasuke-kun, see you tomorrow!" She said with a cheerful wave.

"And multiple personalities award goes to…" Anko grumbled and Kakashi watched as Sasuke dusted himself off, waved goodbye to Sakura and then stuffed his hands in his pocket, turning to them with a raised eyebrow.

"Well?" He asked and Kakashi sighed, this day was shaping up to be a weird one.

"Come on, I want to start you on some endurance training, later Mitarashi-kun." Kakashi said with a lazy wave, taking his book out and she flipped him the bird before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

They were almost to the training ground when Kakashi sensed a couple of fast approaching chakra signatures. He halted just in time to avoid his head colliding with a sandal clad foot.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Twin shouts declared as a cloud of dust erupted in their path.

"What now?" Sasuke asked him and Kakashi sighed, snapping his book shut.

"We meet again my rival!" Gai shouted, striking a nice guy pose and his student appeared beside him mirroring the image.

"Uchiha Sasuke, our paths have finally crossed again!" Rock Lee passionately declared and Sasuke actually groaned.

"Not this again." The raven haired teen complained, giving Kakashi a pleading look.

It was tempting to leave his wayward student to the self declared beast of Konoha, but he had promised to train Sasuke today.

"Hey Gai, it's, _ah_ , good to see you and all, but I promised to train with Sasuke today. You wouldn't want them to get a feel for each other's moves before their match in the finals would you?" Kakashi goaded, if it was one thing Gai could understand, it was fair competition, he would go to extreme lengths to keep things fair in a fight.

"Right you are Kakashi my friend! Come Lee, let's train for your youthful competition!"

And like that, the two exuberant student and teacher were gone.

"Thanks Sensei." Sasuke muttered almost inaudibly, stuffing his hands back into his pockets and following him the rest of the way to the training grounds.

Kakashi looked up the cliff side they were standing under and sighed. He didn't feel like climbing this cliff the old fashioned way, but he had been neglecting his training lately and his fight against Zabuza was a perfect example of why he needed to do this. He told Sasuke what they would be doing and just before the last loyal Uchiha could make a move, he clamped chakra weights onto the boy's wrists, then his own.

"What are these for?" Sasuke asked and he went to channel chakra to his limbs, only for his arms to drop a few inches at the sudden weight.

"They are training weights, it'll speed up your physical progress a little. If you're going to face Lee or Gaara in the finals, you're going to need all the speed you can get." He explained and hoisted himself up the first obstacle of the cliff. "Come on, we don't have much daylight left."

Ignoring the grumbling of who's fault that was, Kakashi focused on adding just enough weight to get his muscles to burn with exertion. The pain brought back many memories of times he had to drag himself from enemy territory, low on chakra and exhausted to the bone. At the time it had been necessary and he he vaguely wondered, even in a controlled environment, how Sasuke would be able to handle the extreme exertion for training.

Or how Naruto and Sakura would have handled it.

It gnawed at his chest how much Naruto resembled his parents, but not as much as the knots in his gut at how much the boy had changed since the mission in Wave. He hardly recognized his student anymore and he would be lying if he wasn't worried that the Kyuubi might be influencing him. If it wasn't for the fact that Naruto is more mellow, Kakashi would be more suspicious of his student. He had failed subordinates before, so he was going to keep a close eye on him, but that didn't mean Kakashi was going to let his paranoia run away with him either. Naruto deserved better and Kakashi would rather be wrong and die than turn away what remains of his precious people.

Letting out a sigh, Kakashi heaved himself over the edge of the cliff they had climbed, having matching his pace with Sasuke's so that they landed just about the same time. It was a fulfilling moment, the two of them panting, winded from a mutual exertion and nothing to show for it but the sweat soaking their clothing. It would be a while yet before signs of their training came to fruition and Kakashi hoped that Sasuke was patient enough to stick out the grueling regime that he planned to put him through.

A stiff breeze ruffled his hair slightly, but not enough to dry the clumps of silver so that they stood with their normal vigor. It was a curiously humid day in Konoha and Kakashi pulled out a canteen to share with his student as they took a moment to recover, it wouldn't do to push themselves too hard after applying the weights, not until they were a little more accustom to wearing them. It would be several days before then, even with chakra enhancements, but Kakashi was confident Sasuke would be able to get up to a fast enough speed that he would be able to perform the jutsu he planned to teach before the final round of the chunin exam.

It was only poetic that Gai's student face his student, both having learned their Sensei's signature skills. Kakashi wondered when he became so sentimental and eyed the setting sun dubiously, as if that were the reason for his emotional problems. He was about to turn around and tell Sasuke to do some light stretches before their descent, when something caught his eye. Turning back fully around, Kakashi blinked as a pink and blue flash tore through the sky, only to vanish somewhere on the other side of Konoha. Blinking again, Kakashi rubbed his eye, but the flying illusion didn't return. He glanced down at a scowling Sasuke, who was looking rather constipated at his lack of instruction and the physical exertion they just endured and pointed vaguely in the direction the blur had vanished.

"You didn't happen to see that did you?" The blank stare was answer enough and he wondered how he was going to get out of this conversation without Sasuke thinking he was loosing his mind.

"I saw you rubbing your eye? Did you get something in it?" Starting to shake his head no, Kakashi nodded instead.

"Huh, yeah, just some dust or something, the wind must have kicked it up. Alright, do some light stretches, climbing down the cliff will be the last thing we do today. You don't want to overtax your body or you won't be in any condition for your match at the end of the month."

Waiting until Sasuke was entrenched in the task he had set for him, Kakashi stole another long look at the horizon before starting his own stretches. He wondered if this was how shinobi started to go mad, seeing things that weren't there, paranoid of others and obsessing over things that couldn't be changed. Sure he considered himself at least a little crazy, after losing as many people as he had and still being able to function well enough to become a top shinobi, he'd have to be. However it would be a cold day in Suna before he admitted it or entertained the idea of getting evaluated by the psych unit. So he pushed the incident from his mind, studiously ignoring any possibility that he actually saw what he saw, until evidence presented itself to disprove his insanity.

The climb down was a little more nerve racking than the climb up. Sasuke was getting weaker by the minute, but the two of them manage to make it to the bottom before collapsing with exhaustion. Sasuke thanked him for training… well, Kakashi interpreted it that way and then promised that tomorrow he really was showing up bright and early for training. Sasuke scoffed at him before turning tail and leaving, likely in a rush to get the grime from the day cleaned off. Not that Kakashi blamed him, having skipped having a shower that morning, he wasn't smelling like the inside of the Yamanaka botanical either.

In fact, Kakashi decided he needed a shower, a stiff drink and some company for the evening and headed to the nearest bar. When he was properly bathed and in clothes fit to be in public in off duty, he was mildly surprised to find the bar fairly busy that evening. There were more customers of the female persuasion than usual and Kakashi was interested to find the reason was due to Jiraiya of the Sannin boisterously entertaining several woman with tales of his adventures.

One woman in particular caught his eye, she was tall looking for a woman and had hair a shade of blue not seen often, especially not in Konoha. However, it was her kimono's oddly familiar pink hue that really drew him in. She was bubbly and fake laughing at something Jiraiya said, swatting a stray hand away from her when it ventured too closely. Ordering a couple bottles of sake, Kakashi settled uninvited in between the bluenette and a curvy woman who was likely from the _paid_ persuasion.

"Kakashi!" Jiraiya greeted as if he had been expecting him this whole time and perhaps he had been. "Glad to see you've improved your social skills enough to enjoy the wonders of alcohol and exquisite company." He jeered, giving the curvy woman next to him a less that subtle leer and groping the breast of the woman he had an arm around.

"Yes, well after the day I've had, it's nice to unwind a little, I hadn't expected you to be here though." Kakashi said cordially, accepting the bottles of sake from the waitress, shoving one toward Jiraiya before allowing one of the woman to pour him a drink. Normally his paranoia wouldn't allow such a thing, but with Jiraiya sitting across from him, he figured that they weren't likely to get into too much trouble… or if they did, he would have a Sannin as back up.

"Kakashi? That name sounds familiar." The blue haired woman pondered aloud, glaring at Jiraiya heavily flirting with the woman pouring him another drink.

"That's because my new apprentice is his student." Jiraiya chuckled and the woman puffed out her cheeks in a cute little pout.

"Yes, well, I'm not so sure about you, but hopefully Kakashi-san is a little more gentlemanly about his intentions." She sneered and smacked Jiraiya's wondering hand again, then turning a smile to him that had him blushing under his mask. "I'm Botan, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ah, well it's nice to meet you too, but even I have to admit that my intentions in coming here tonight were to find human companionship." Kakashi confessed, rubbing the back of his head.

This confession might turn the pretty bluenette before him off, but he could see to the more loosely moral women beside him perk up. Though he didn't usually pay for an evening adventure, it was hard to find a woman willing to accommodate his… strict, bedroom requirements. Most of which involved not falling asleep with him due to nightmares and to not be overly aggressive during their bedroom tango. However, she just smiled brighter and reached over to gently brush his shoulder with her fingertips.

"Silly there's nothing wrong with that, but there's a line between seeking companionship and being a tool who objectifies women." Que another glare at Jiraiya, who was protesting such "lies" to the women around him.

Kakashi was taken aback, he hadn't ever had a woman who had openly touched him in such an intimate manner that wasn't trying to seduce him, but Botan's touch had been innocently flirtatious. Studying her a moment and looking to Jiraiya, who was studying her when she wasn't looking, Kakashi concluded she was an unknown, one the Toad Sage was trying to figure out.

"Well, in that case, would you mind perhaps find a more private location to enjoy a couple of drinks with me?" He asked, getting a silent go ahead from the Sannin as he stood, offering a hand to Botan.

"As a matter of a fact I would, thank you." She agreed readily, taking his hand and turning to Jiraiya one final time. "I shall meet with you and Kurama-kun in the morning as planned, good evening." She said stiffly and then allowed Kakashi to lead her over to a private booth where they could share a conversation without being disturbed by the other patrons.

They conversed for a while about nothing in particular, it seemed Botan was just as capable of playing clueless about certain topics as he was at using misleading information to direct away from what someone really wanted to know. The two of them somehow managed to get state their likes and dislikes, their names and yet not tell each other anything important. It made for a rather pleasant conversation, but it also made Kakashi suspicious.

Not that it stopped him from enjoying his evening.

"I think I like you, Hatake-san." She slurred, leaning against him as if he were the only thing that would prevent her from falling over. "You're a rare type of man, you see, there are very few in this world who dedicate themselves to protecting people they care about. Not many people realize that bond is as much as a powerful tool as a strong fist." She huffed airily, taking another sip from her drink before smiling at him. "I like that kind of man."

Kakashi couldn't help smiling down at her, she was at least honest about that much and he would be lying if he said he wasn't attracted to her. She reached up and brushed her fingers over the edges of his mask, hesitating just long enough to ask permission. If he had wanted to stop her, those delicate touches wouldn't have reached his face, but he still found it a little awkward when the mask was removed by another person.

Once it was down, however, she was staring at him with a look he knew all too well. Her lips were warm against his, just soft enough to counter he slightly chapped ones. They didn't deepen the kiss, it wasn't love they were feeling for each other and they were still in a public setting. Pulling his mask back up and standing, he held a hand out to Botan, helping her from her seat.

"What do you say we find somewhere a little more comfortable?" Kakashi's slightly husky tone made her pupils dilate in lust and she was barely able to nod as he wrapped an arm around her waist, leading her to the hotel near by.

"Oh, how did you know this was where I was staying?" She asked in wonder as they stumbled past the entrance toward the main desk.

He hadn't know, but this was usually where he brought his more intimate acquaintances and thought it might kill the mood to admit that. "Ah… Lucky guess."

If she did figure out that this might have been somewhere he frequented on occasion, she didn't say anything as she took the lead to her room. It took a little work trying to get the key to open the door as they were both doing their best to molest every inch of each other. Her deft hands had already removed his vest and were snaking their way up his shirt when he kicked the door closed behind him.

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 **...The following segment is rated M for Mature,**

 **reader discretion is advised...**

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oOo

Botan squealed in excitement when he tossed her on the bed, peeling his mask off and growling like an animal as he hooked his teeth on the edge of her obi, pulling it the rest of the way from her body. Her breast swelled with each breath she took and her nipples hardened when exposed to the cool air. Running a hand up her thigh, Kakashi settled between her legs just enough to be able to take one of her pert breast into his mouth, swirling his tongue around her nipple before giving it a gentle suck.

She arched into him and he gave a thrust against her, his still clothed cock aching to be released. A growling moan rumbled in his chest as he trapped her nipple between his teeth and stretched it just enough to cause the barest of pain before releasing it so he could lean back. Her eyes cracked open underneath him and she looked up at him lustfully, likely wondering if he was going to continue. Scooting down, his eyes stayed trained on hers as his tongue snaked out to lap at her belly button before he was once more between her legs.

Inhaling, Kakashi caught the lingering scent of the soaps she used to bathe with before he spread her to get a better smell of her arousal. She was already moist in anticipation, but he could tell she lacked the edge she would need for release later on. Starting a steady pace of swirls and flicks with his tongue, Kakashi slid a couple of digits into her in search for a bundle of nerves that would make her putty to his touch.

"Kakashi!" She moaned out like a prayer, it was a bit odd for her to use his name instead of Kami-sama as most women he pleasured did, but the oddity only lingered for a moment and he was back to sliding his tongue between her folds, pleased that he found what he had been searching for.

When a sweet slickness coated his taste buds, Kakashi pulled back and slid his pants off, giving himself a couple of strokes as she squirmed beneath him at the lack of contact. He was rock hard, he had plenty of women in his bed before, but never before had he been so attracted to a woman before. Her body felt as if it was made for him to please, she responded just right to his dominating and the tightness of her around his cock was almost overbearing. It really had been far too long since he had done this.

He thrust like an animal into her, their thighs slapping together with their rutting. Botan continued to moan his name and he found it made him ache for her even harder. Her hips jutted up to meet his and he found he loved the way her breast bounce and rolled to the different rhythms of his thrust. If there had been anyone who complained at how loud they were being, he truly couldn't hear them over erotic sound reverberating from the woman beneath him.

As she spasmed around him in orgasm, Kakashi shuddered against her, almost releasing right there. Pulling out just in time to give himself half a pump, he was spilling himself on her stomach with an almost pained grunt. Spent, he collapsed next to her for a moment, panting in an effort to catch his breath before pushing himself from the bed to retrieve a hand towel from the bathroom. The two of them cleaned up, arms shaking so bad that it was difficult to get them to move and it wasn't long after that she nodded off to sleep.

oOo

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 **...And now we return to your regularly scheduled program...**

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oOo

Staring down at her sweat sheened skin and the delicate eyelashes resting against rosey cheeks, Kakashi knew couldn't do this again. She was everything he had ever wanted, a walking, talking, breathing wet dream. The only problem was, in the morning dreams tended to fade away, leaving the bitter reality he lived in behind.

Curling the comforter around her, Kakashi did something he never did with any of his other one-night-stands and that was to lean down, brushing a strand of hair from her face to give her a goodbye kiss. She stirred slightly, snuggling into the blanket with a contented sigh when he stood and Kakashi stepped away from the bed afraid she would wake. Settling onto the window sill to watch her until morning, he hoped whatever reason she had for being in the village, harming his students wasn't one of them.

Over all it had been peculiar day, but he would have to say it was one of the better ones in he had experienced in a long time.

Here was to hoping he would regret tomorrow...

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AN: Sorry this was a long time coming, I'm not going to make a bunch of excuses. The next chapter should be posted much sooner.

Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoyed the update~


	9. Things are Different

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 **CHAPTER IX**

 **(Things are Different)**

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It had been a grueling month for Kurama. Not only had team seven been trained into the ground, not just by Kakashi-Sensei, but Jiraiya of the Sannin, they had to endure the horror of their Sensei's dating life… or whatever the two of them were calling it. He was happy that Botan had finally found someone after so many years alone, but he had never suspected that it would be Hatake Kakashi of all people.

Huffing boredly, Kurama watched with lazy eyes as people drifted into the stadium and settled into their seats. Sakura and Sasuke were beside him and though they were nervous and excited to be participating, they hid it well. He was not looking forward to actually putting forth an effort in this event, as he had planned to bomb the chunin exams to downplay exactly how strong he was.

Unfortunately, Jiraiya was blackmailing him at the Toad Sage vouched for Botan, saying she was part of his spy network keeping an eye on Orochimaru. This allowed Kurama to continue to pretend to be Naruto and though the Hokage knew he was different now, he didn't know that Botan was a shinigami or that he was a reincarnated Yokai. The only reason Jiraiya was going to such lengths to keep his secrets was that Pa vouched for him, apparently, even after being dead for so long, his name still carried a bit of sway among those still in the Makai; or Summons Realm as it was now called.

In order to keep his secrets, Kurama had to actually compete in the tournament, though the Hokage didn't know that part. The Hokage and Jiraiya decided they would pass his new abilities off as training with a Sage and a version of the mokuton kekkei genkai. It pleased the Hokage that "Naruto" had grown so strong and matured after his first real mission. If he actually went through with the tournament, then he had a real chance of becoming a chunin. In other words, there was no escape for him and he was going to be pushed in a direction he wasn't sure was the right path.

Botan waved to them from the stands, sitting next to Kakashi, who was being bombarded by Gai, likely making bets as to which of their students would win. Kurama glanced at Lee, he was giving Sasuke determined looks and impatiently waiting for his match with the dark avenger. There was a Kusa-nin cleaning her glasses and Dosu had somehow made it into the final round, looking rightfully terrified. It had, after all, been the Oto-nin's teammate who had been pitted against Gaara in the preliminaries, it was unfortunate that he would likely to be sharing the same fate as his comrade.

"The first match will be Uzumaki Naruto of Konohagakure no Sato versus Kankuro of Sunagakure no Sato!" The proctor Shiranui Genma announced, instructing the competitors to enter the arena.

Kurama was lept over the railing, dropping the not so short distance to the ground, landing lightly, with hardly a crunch under his feet. Kankuro, by contrast, landed as if someone had dropped a lead weight from a great distance. Clearly the other boy hadn't learned to silence his landing with chakra. It was a skill not dissimilar to tree climbing or water walking. All someone needed to do was create a "cushion" of chakra at the bottom of their feet to take the impact. It was also much easier on the knees than just free landing.

"Show off." Kankuro grumbled not so subtly.

Resisting the urge to sneer in contempt, Kurama opted for a bland look that hopefully got across the point that he thought the Suna-nin was stupid. "What do you think this part of the exam is for?"

"Yeah whatever," He grumbled again and then raised his voice so the proctor could "hear". "Just start the match already, I want to get this over with."

"Alright, rules are the same as the preliminaries, fight until one of you is knocked unconscious or I call the match." Genma stated boredly, signaling the match before using a shunshin to leave the arena to observe.

The match started off quickly. Kankuro was not patient by any stretch of the imagination and Kurama was forced on the defensive for a few seconds until he could get a feel for his opponent's fighting style. However, just about the time Kurama got in a good hit, his fist met with solid clay, a crack from his knuckles reverberating through the nearly hollow object.

"Clever, switching with your puppet at the last moment." Kurama said, hopping back when the chattering jaw tried to take a bite out of him and several of the arms aimed for vital spots.

Back flipping to put some distance between them, Kurama's fingers dug into the earth as he finished the last turn. Crow, the puppet that Kankuro was currently controlling was still too close for comfort. Flashing through a set of hand seals, Kurama summoned up ten clones, using them to get enough distance from his opponent that his rose whip would be effective.

Lashing out, there was a crack a his whip hurled toward his opponent. Thorns sliced through the puppet as if it were mochi and not reinforced clay, severing one of its many arms. It didn't gain him an advantage, the arm floated momentarily in the air before reattaching itself, but Kurama was already making his next move.

Bamboo reigned down on the arena, Kankuro almost getting skewered in the process of dodging, his puppet wasn't as lucky. Cursing, the Suna-nin abandoned the puppet to attack Kurama with a kunai, pissed that his prized weapon had been so easily defeated. The sloppy attack never landed as the puppeteer passed over the patch of dirt that Kurama had back-flipped over earlier in the match. Roots and a tree shot up from the ground, a gasp rushing through the onlooking crowd as it contorted itself around the suna-nin, effectively binding him.

"You have been bested, surrender." Kankuro glared defiantly at him, trying to hack away at the trunk with the kunai he was still holding. The tree twisted, constricting painfully and Kankuro screamed out in pain.

"Alright, I'm calling the match, Uzumaki Naruto wins." Genma declared, giving Naruto pointed look and motioning to the now fearfully sweating Suna-nin.

Retracting the tree, Kurama summoned the seed he had planted and allowed the bamboo to revert back to its original form. Smiling, Kurama returned to his teammates, Sakura actively congratulated him and Sasuke even went so far as to give him a fist bump.

"Next match, Dosu versus Sabaku no Gaara."

Gaara didn't have a chance to unfold his arms and start for the arena when Dosu made a nervous sound, clearing his throat.

"I forfeit." He stated just loud enough that the proctor heard, earning him a death glare from the Suna-nin who was supposed to be his opponent.

"Dosu forfeits, _not that I can blame him_ ," Genma muttered under his breath. "Next match is Karin of Kusagakure no Sato and Haruno Sakura of Konohagakure no Sato!"

The two girls looked at one another, trying to determine if the other was going to forfeit and when neither flinched, they both dropped down into the arena. Both girls landed less than gracefully, Karin more so than Sakura, who had needed to take an extra step to regain her balance. Sakura just landed hard, much like Kankuro had and then proceeded to calmly walk to the center of the arena.

Their fight started off slow, neither willing to attack first until the proctor said something about not taking all day. This seemed to spur them on and it was all knuckles and brute force between the two. Sakura had improved over the last month, she was a lot stronger than before and quickly closing the gap between her and her teammates, but Karin was proving to be no slouch either. A lucky punch was landed by Sakura, knocking Karin back several feet and the girl doubled over, clutching her chest.

"You punched me in the boob, dattakasa!" The redhead snarled and Sakura raised an eyebrow in contempt until a violent chakra began to emanate from the Kusa-nin.

The match was over before Sakura knew what hit her. There was a resounding crack as a thick chain collided with Sakura's forehead and knocked her unconscious.

"Winner, Karin!" Genma called anxiously, openly staring at the redhead as if seeing a ghost.

Kurama found that interesting, it wasn't just the proctor giving her uncertain scrutiny, but the Hokage, Kazekage and a good portion of the spectators. There was something about what the girl had just done that surprised them, just as much as his use of the mokuton. Whatever their reaction was, was pushed aside so that Sakura could get medical attention and the arena to be cleared. He would have to investigate later, it wasn't important at the moment and the next match was being called.

"Temari of Sunagakure no Sato versus Nara Shikamaru of Konohagakure no Sato."

Shikamaru was accidently shoved into the arena by an over exuberant Lee, meaning that the lazy Nara actually had to fight. His battle was rather long and boring, he and his opponent more focused on strategizing than actual fighting. Kurama was enjoying it immensely, but they lost the favor of the crowd ten minutes into the match. In the end, neither of them won, Shikamaru forced Temari to raise her hand and then both of them forfeited at the same time… then proceeded to argue about who forfeited first.

Declaring they both forfeited at the same time, Genma called the last match of the first round. "Rock Lee of Konohagakure no Sato versus Uchiha Sasuke of Konohagakure no Sato."

The two of the dropped into the arena, with smirks tugging at the corner of both of their mouths. They wasted no time getting into the fight, Lee was on the move first and Sasuke not far behind. The two of them circled each other, trading blows at speeds that were hard to follow. It was amazing how far Sasuke had come in the last month.

Lee was the first to kick it up a notch, dropping the weights and gaining the advantage in speed. Only for Sasuke to do the same, removing the ones on his wrists that Kakashi-Sensei ad forced him to wear. He wasn't as fast as Lee, not by a long shot, but his sharingan made up the difference. What he lacked in speed, Sasuke made up for in timing and reaction. Sasuke managed to break Lee's nose, but in the process, Lee landed a solid hit the Sasuke's jaw with a roundhouse kick, sending him crashing hard against the wall of the arena.

For a moment, Kurama was worried his friend wouldn't get up, but Sasuke proved to be tougher than the average genin and stood shakily on his feet, still conscious. Pulling something from his hands with his teeth, Sasuke backed up the wall some and then charged Lee. Wire glinted in the sun, surrounding Sasuke who used it to trip Lee up. Fire spread down the wire toward Lee, who had to use up to the third gate to get away.

The remainder of the battle was nothing but a blur to the untrained eye. At first Sasuke was getting his ass handed to him, but all of the sudden he did something unexpected, he stopped moving and smirked. By the time Lee figured out what was going on, the trap the last loyal Uchiha had set sprung and Lee was bound on the ground with nearly invisible wires.

"It would take far too long to escape these binds for the match to continue, I forfeit." Lee stated with a sigh. The crowd cheered and a panting Sasuke stood there for a moment as the proctor called the match, then freed Lee, offering a hand to him to help him up.

"That was good match, maybe you could join my teammates and I for a spar some time." Sasuke offered and Lee beamed.

"I would be honored. It felt good to finally beat my teammate in the preliminaries and I would like another match against you in the future! I will prove someday that I can be a shinobi with hard work!" Lee declared and took off to join said teammates.

When Sasuke rejoined them, Kurama grinned and told him how much he was looking forward to their match should the two of them pass the final rounds. Genma cleared his throat, distracting them from their excitement and addressed the crowd.

"Alright that concludes the first round. We will be taking a half hour break for the contestants to regain their energy and to give our honored guest a chance to place any final bets or acquire refreshments during this intermission."

After that, there was a small bustle among the crowd and Kurama was grabbed by Sasuke and dragged off before they could get swept up in celebrations. Raising an eyebrow at his teammate, the other boy flushed and let go, crossing his arms.

"I just thought it we should check up on Sakura." He stated, marching down the hall without waiting for a response.

Chuckling to himself, Kurama followed the self proclaimed avenger and it wasn't long before they found a nurse to inquire about their teammate. To be honest, Kurama had been planning on slipping away to do just that, but it was refreshing to find Sasuke actually forming a bond with them, enough to show concern for a teammate.

"Um… is there a shop close by that sells get well arrangements?" Sasuke asked the nurse, shifting uncomfortably when she asked what kind of flowers his girlfriend liked.

"Oh, she and Sasuke aren't together, we're her teammates." Kurama spoke up and gently directed the attention away from Sasuke. Once the woman told them where the shop was, the two of them escaped down the hall.

Once inside the shop, Kurama asked Sasuke to just pick out a vase that he liked and that Kurama would do the rest. Skeptical at first, the last loyal Uchiha ask why not just buy the flowers too when Kurama explained that if he grew them in the vase, then they would last forever and Sakura would have something from the both of them. Picking out his own vase, Kurama purchased a couple of cards on skewers, some plant nutrient packets and a jug of water.

"What kind of flowers would you like to give her, Sasuke? There is no limit, so choose whatever you would like." Kurama asked peering at the simple clear, teardrop shaped vase Sasuke had chosen. In the bottom was a mix of yellow, orange and red glass beads, bright and cheery. Kurama could recreate Makai plants, but he could most human ones and was interested to see what Sasuke would come up with.

"Gloriosa lilies." He started and Kurama was impressed, that was a rare breed of flower and it would take a bit of tweaking of the lily seeds he had to produce it, but it wasn't impossible.

Dropping a few seeds into the bottom of the jar, he added a packet of the plant nutrients and water, then forced the lilies to grow. They sprouted and made buds, the roots twisted and gnarled in the water would keep them alive. He stopped the process when about half the buds began to bloom, meaning Sakura would have several weeks to enjoy the blooms as they opened, before she would have to wait several more weeks for the new buds to form.

Handing Sasuke one of the card skewers, he placed some seeds into his own jar, along with one of the nutrient packets and some water, then grew his own flowers. Sasuke peered at the small tree that had formed and the bright pink and white fuzzy flowers on it.

"Is that a miniature mimosa tree?" He asked, clearly skeptical that was what it was, likely because the leaves were the wrong shape.

"No it's a barringtonia asiatica, or sea poison tree. I thought it fitting considering your plant, Sakura will have the beginnings of a good posion collection, one that I'm sure would make any poison specialist drool with envy. I've modified them to bloom more often and to go dormant if she forgets to water them, or in case we have a mission that takes an extended period of time." Kurama explained and Sasuke nodded, running a finger over the delicate petals of his gift.

"Maybe we should start a greenhouse and all of us train in poisons. If nothing else then having a good antidote for each would be handy." He stated and Kurama couldn't agree more. He once had a greenhouse that would rival the biggest botanical gardens, every plant you could think of stored there for his own personal use.

Sakura was still unconscious when they arrived, she had an iv to keep her hydrated, but the doctors weren't certain why she hadn't woken up yet. They only had a short time before the next round, so Kurama jotted down a quick note wishing Sakura a quick recovery, how to tend to the plants, what they were and how to cultivate them for poisons.

When they returned to the waiting area, Karin was already standing in the arena and the proctor was giving the final call for Sasuke. "Great, we've picked up Sensei pension for tardiness." The Uchiha grumbled, hopping over the railing.

"Just don't give any lame excuses." Kurama called over the railing jubilantly and earned a snort from the falling teen.

"Great, you're just on time. Another thirty seconds and you would have been automatically disqualified." Genma scolded and then turned to the crowd. "Alright, the finals are here, Uchiha Sasuke of Konohagakure versus Karin of Kusagakure no Sato!"

There was a cheer through the crowd of spectators and Genma diligently waited until they calmed down before starting the fight.

Sasuke was quick to attack, already having a feel of the Kusa-nin's abilities after having watched her fight Sakura. Karin did her best to defend herself and it wasn't long before those strange chakra chain emerged and put the avenger on the defensive. The ground shook as the chains bashed where Sasuke had been standing moments before. Dust clouded their view and it wasn't until a chirping filled the air that Kurama realised how intense the fight had become.

When the dust cleared, Sasuke stood, arm outstretched, right through the girl's stomach. She coughed blood, eyes slightly glazed and tears streaming from the corner of her eyes. For the most part, Sasuke looked slightly mortified that his attack had actually landed and was shaking slightly when he pulled his hand back. He caught her as she fell and settled her on the ground, not apologising, but still sorry the match had to end that way.

Surprisingly the girl raised her arm and bit into it. There was a surge of chakra that flowed around Karin and the crowd watched as her wound healed itself. She punched Sasuke in the jaw, causing him to stumble back and land on his ass. Standing she dusted her skirt off and stalked over to him, the chakra that surrounded her fading as she reached down and gripped his collar, hoisting him to his feet. Pulling her arm back and balling her fist, Kurama was sure she was about to finish Sasuke off. Both of them were drained of chakra and barely standing, when her knees gave out and she collapsed against the stunned Uchiha.

Genma wondered over, checking her pulse and helped lay her down gently in the grass. "She's alive, just unconscious." The proctor observed and then turned to the crowd. "Winner of this round Uchiha Sasuke."

Sighing in relief, Sasuke shot their Sensei a look Kurama knew all too well. One of understanding and apology. In using that technique, Sasuke had given up a part of his innocence and there would be no going back. Kurama just hoped it wouldn't lead to his teammate becoming thirsty for power. Having gotten a taste of how strong he had become, the last Uchiha could easily get pulled into the allure of wanting more power. It was little bit of a comfort when Sasuke returned and told Kurama he better not lose his match so that they could fight each other.

Kurama wasn't so sure he was going to win, his opponent was going to be tough to handle, but he still had a few tricks up his sleeves. Dropping down silently into the arena, Kurama watched as sand began to reform across from him as Gaara. A sinister and hungry look stared back at him from the other teen as the match was announced.

"Gaara no Sabaku of Sunagakure no Sato versus Uzumaki Naruto of Konohagakure no Sato!"

Kurama wasted no time in growing a rose, crushing it in the palm of his hand before releasing the petals into the air. "Rose whip, petals and thorns." He called, forcing the petals to reign down on Gaara.

The sand the boy wielded created a shield that effectively protected the Suna-nin and any lashes from his whip were countered by said sand. Instead, Kurama reverted his rose whip back into a seed and summoned pre-existing roots from the ground below them to act as spikes. Naturally Gaara's sand rose to the occasion and blocked the spikes, so Kurama had to take a moment to think of another plan of attack. Seeing no other option, he would have to rely on something he had theorised before the final exam started.

Getting close to the boy was the only option, but the sand would be a problem. Pulling out a sealing scroll, having prepared it beforehand for this, Kurama charged the sand flying toward him. Unsealing the scroll, Kurama unleashed a torrent of water that nearly flooding the whole arena. Gaara was swept in the wave of water and slammed into one of the shorter trees at the edge of the arena.

When Kurama could see him again, Gaara was holding his head and mumbling to himself hysterically. He didn't waste time and skid across the surface of the still pooling water, summoning a flower that he crushed into his hand. When he neared Gaara, the kid hardly noticed him, speaking to this "mother" that he kept on rambling about. The teal eyed, redheaded boy finally looked up, but it was already too late. Kurama crushed the flower, gathering the pollen into his hand before blowing a cloud of spores into the Suna-nin's face.

Inhaling in shock, the boy swayed on his feet for a moment, confused as to what was happening to him and Kurama watched as he sunk to his knees. The kitsune was sure he had won, the boy wouldn't be able to resist the effects of the narcolepsy pollen. It would put him into a deep sleep, one that could be deadly if not handled carefully, it was just a matter of waiting it out now.

However, just as Genma was about to call the match, a sinister laughter came from Gaara, sand slowly slithering up around him, building up like a living armor. Kurama turned to his opponent, trying to think up a way to stop him seeing as the sleeping pollen had failed, only to pause and look around at the crowds. Gently glowing feathers descended on the arena and Kurama quickly flexed his chakra to prevent himself from falling victim to the genjutsu that was being used. The spectators each started falling unconscious as the jutsu was amplified by multiple parties, Anbu scattered in the crowd performing the act.

' _No, not Anbu, spies._ ' The thought drifted across his mind as he watched battles begin to erupt in the crowds.

Something wasn't right and as Kurama turned to face Gaara once more, he found a hulking sand demon standing before him.

"Well, this is interesting."

oOo

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AN: Sorry it's a day or so late, this chapter has a lot in it and is a little longer than normal.

I hope you enjoyed~


	10. The Father that Buries His Son

oOo

 **CHAPTER X**

 **(The Father that Buries His Son)**

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oOo

The battles thus far had been entertaining for the most part. The youth of this day and age were certainly imaginative and diverse in their fighting styles. Most of them hadn't known the hardship of losing someone close to them or having to kill in order to survive, but that didn't stop them from giving it their all. It was a shame they would know that feeling by the time the day was through.

"I knew this day would come, however, you're not going to defeat me that easily, Orochimaru."

"I told you didn't I? You should have picked the Godaime Hokage long before now."

Orochimaru was right, if Hiruzen was being honest with himself, the chance of him surviving this battle were slim, but he still had enough strength to stop his plans for an invasion. The barrier that had been constructed now had a second interior barrier that would prevent him from taking out one of the four young shinobi maintaining it. There was nothing he could do, this battle was his only chance at redeeming himself for failing to stop his student in the past. Perhaps he really had been a fool for thinking the Sannin could see reason and would eventually return as an ally, but it wasn't happening today.

Throwing the cumbersome Hokage robes to the side, Hiruzen dodged Orochimaru's first attack and countered with a mud attack. It was a cheap shot and his former student was playing possum, as if the attack had been more than a instinctual counter. Just as he suspect, the snake Sannin reemerged and the fighting commenced between two powerful opponents. The battle would stall every few minutes, in that time the Sandaime Hokage would catch glimpses of the battles raging on outside of the barrier and of his loyal bodyguards doing their best to break through to aid him.

Naruto, his successor's precious little boy, looked to be turning into a man, holding his own against Suna's own jinchuuriki. Roots and plants bent to his will and before long, the Suna boy was on the ground, unable to fight any longer. Sharp, reflective gold eyes scanned the area, likely searching for someone who needed his help, before those intelligent eyes met his own dark ones. Nara Shikamaru said something to the former blonde and then began directing the other Genin with Sasuke and Sakura's help. Gai's team was off in the distance, corralling bystanders from the arena, directing them to safety zones and fending off attacking enemies in the process. Naruto had a determined look on his face and was shouting instructions at someone to assist with removing Gaara and his siblings from the battlefield, before he vanished from his line of sight.

Hiruzen didn't have time to contemplate what the Naruto could be planning when Orochimaru made his next move. Suddenly three coffins sprang from the tiles between them and the numbers on each had him reeling in horror. It was going to be hard enough to fight his former student alone, but what the Sannin was planning would mean the end of him for sure. The coffins began to radiate with the power of summoning and Hiruzen had to do something fast.

However, he only had time to stop one of the summonsing, thankfully the one that would reveal Naruto's lineage for sure. Heaving a tired sigh to catch his breath, Sarutobi Hiruzen stood in front of his predecessors, the Shodaime Hokage and his own Sensei, the Nidaime Hokage. The brothers were nothing more than shells of their former selves, quite literally comprised of earth, chakra and the seals controlling them. It was painful to see them ripped from their eternal rest just to cause him suffering.

"Hiruzen-kun, be careful, he's going to force me to use my mokuton." Hashirama warned, the Shodaime's hands were already forced together and moved against his will. The tall tale cracking of wood in motion filled the small battle field and spears of wood sprang out from around the founder of the village. He dodged an attack from Tobirama-Sensei and barely evaded getting impaled by Hashirama's wooden spears.

"Behind you!" Tobirama-Sensei shouted, but it was likely too late, even as he tried to dodge whatever was coming at him.

However, he suddenly found himself closer to Hashirama then he had been before, more specifically, closer to the wooden spears. There was a collective pause as they tried to figure out what had happened. Even Orochimaru was waiting for the dist to settled with the patients of an excited child. There was a stiff breeze and as the dust vanished, a short figure stood, silver tail lashing out behind it and it's ears flattened against long, silver hair.

"Naruto! How did you get in here?" Hiruzen demanded in panic, worrying more when the boy seemed nonplussed by his concern. "You need to leave, immediately!"

"You would have every right to be concerned, if I was in fact completely Naruto. He is but a child, but I…" The Sandaime Hokage wasn't sure what he was hearing, but he did not like the sounds of it. "I am Kurama. Please Hokage-sama, continue your fight and I will assist in any way that I can." The boy said with a serene smile, motioning to the paused battle.

"I don't want you to interfere, but if you can get in, can you get other people in too?" Shooting furtive glances at the openly curious gaze in Orochimaru's eyes, he wondered how long this momentary pause would last. Both parties in this battle needed to catch their breath, most battles of this caliber never lasted this long, but the snake Sannin had bought himself time to drag it out with the barrier.

"I can, anyone specific?" Naruto-Kurama-or-whatever-he-called-himself asked, the calmness the young boy excluded unnerved him. Not in the same way Danzo's ROOT minions did, but it was like the calm before the storm and the Sandaime was afraid of what that meant for the little boy he had nurtured these past thirteen years.

"Start with the Anbu stationed outside of the barrier and any Jonin who approach that you think can be spared to help. I'm strong, but even I cannot take on three Kage level opponents alone." He admitted and a sinister grin twisted Orochimaru's overly pale features.

"Finally admitting you've become old and weak _Sensei?_ " His former student taunted, watching with rapt attention as Naruto moved to one of the Shodaime's spears and fazed through it. "Amazing, he really is a mokuton user." The Sannin mused aloud, completely forgetting about the Hokage for a moment to watch as Kurama reappeared with the three Anbu that had been outside of the barrier moments before. Snapping out of whatever inquisitive stupor he was in, Orochimaru was on the attack again.

The Anbu were quick to dispatch against the two Kage, simultaneously attacking when he did. The three of them weren't strong enough to take on a Kage level shinobi, let alone two, and Kurama was forced to dodge attacks in the confining battle field. One of his men managed to wound Tobirama-Sensei, but it healed over as quickly as it formed. However, they kept pecking away at the undead forms of his predecessors, while Kurama tried to stay out of the way. The young man was successful until one of the Kage, Hashirama, started seeking the boy out personally when he tried to leave to bring in a passing Jonin.

Distracted for only a fraction of a second when Kurama cried out in pain, a shuriken got him in the gut, Hiruzen felt a severing pain in his left arm. Looking down in horror, he stared at the appendage laying there, not quite comprehending what had just happened. Instinct was the only thing that saved him from the next blow, rolling out of the way and leaving a trail of blood behind him. Cauterizing the wound with chakra to slow the worst of the bleeding, the Sandaime Hokage turned to his Anbu just as they finished off his Sensei, returning him to the clay he had been forged from. If they survived this, his men deserved promotions, it was no easy feat to take out a Kage level shinobi, even with three Anbu working in tandem.

"Two of you take on the Shodaime, I need one of you at my side." He ordered, trying to catch his breath. Their only saving grace was that Orochimaru looked just as tired as he was feeling, but the battle was hardly over.

One of his men crunched a pill and he felt a surge of chakra next to him. "Ready whenever you are, Hokage-sama."

The battle turned in their favor for a short time, at least while his loyal guards were in fighting condition. That was until Hashirama managed to mortally wound one of his men. They didn't scream out when he went down, but his teammates rage filled cry as he finished off the founder of the village told him that his Anbu had been injured bad. He and Kurama joined him just as the Anbu fighting at his side lost a leg to Orochimaru's sword, Kusanagi. It must have been what he had lost his arm to, Hiruzen mused to himself, watching as the remaining Anbu turned to pull his teammate away from the battle, before rejoining him at his side.

"Hokage-sama, do you think you can distract Orochimaru for a moment?" Kurama asked quietly beside him, he used his rose whip to counter another slash from Kusanagi, its sharp edge severing the vine into several pieces.

"I can, but there isn't going to be much that you can do against him." He watched as the young man flooded the area with kage-bunshin, each attacking from a different direction, teamed with his remaining Anbu, it effectively distracted Orochimaru from them for a moment.

"All I need to do is get a hold on him for a moment, you'll have to attack him in order to give me a chance to get away." Kurama murmured, crouching down and slipping some kind of pill or seed into his mouth. "After that, it is only a matter of time and I can focus on getting the injured out of here."

It wasn't a half bad plan and if he made it out of this alive, he was going to make sure the boy he considered a pseudo grandson, knew how proud he was of him.

"Very well, be careful though, if you can't get a clean shot in, I want you to back off." At his command, the silver haired young man's body began to twist and crack, smoke wafting out of nowhere to cover him.

Orochimaru finished with the clones and turned back to the Hokage, the still standing Anbu retreated to his side and Kurama was nowhere to be seen. "So the little brat decided to run and abandoned his Hokage, really Sensei, you're too soft on-"

Whatever he had been about to say was cut off when a silver blur shot out from some rubble and lunged at the snake Sannin. Lashing tails swayed in an attempt to keep the pony sized fox from being tossed aside by a surprised Orochimaru. Sarutobi was almost panicking himself when he counted nine tails… only to recount and realize there were, in fact, only eight. Blood and drool dripped from its muzzle as sharp teeth had sunk into his former student's thigh and Hiruzen broke himself from his surprise to deliver a fatal blow to the man he once considered a son.

Of course, what was a fatal wound to a normal person, Orochimaru had found ways around it. The wound vanished almost as fast as it had appeared and Kurama was tossed to the side. There was a strangled yelp as he skid across tiles and smacked into one of the remnants of an earth jutsu. The silvery fox slid down onto the rooftop and despite a vain attempt to get back up, didn't quite manage it as he shifted back to a humanoid form, coughing and holding his abdomen.

"You might as well give up if you're relying on a genin of all people to save you, _Sensei_." Orochimaru was taunting him, but this battle was nearly over and the Sannin had expelled more chakra than he was likely to admit any time soon.

"I rely on all of my shinobi to protect this village with their own strengths, from the weakest genin, to myself, the Hokage. The will of fire burns brightly in each of them and I trust them with the future of this village."

It surprised him how honest he was with that statement, it almost confronted him with the fact he was staring his death in the face. There was only one way he could think to take down his student for good and it was going to be the end of him. Flashing through the seals one handed took longer than he expected, his remaining Anbu was doing a good job of keeping Orochimaru busy, but he was no match for the Sannin, even uninjured.

Just as he was finishing the final seal, Orochimaru suddenly stopped moving and clutched his leg. He half growled, half cried out in pain, sickly yellow eyes meeting reflective gold through the pain. "You! What have you done to me?"

Turning to Kurama, the young man had forced himself to his feet, the sinister smile curling his face partially hidden behind curtains of silvery hair. "I have planted a chakra consuming plant into your leg, one that will slowly devour its host once it has taken root. You have maybe five minutes before it reaches the gate of death."

Chakra surged from Orochimaru and power leaked untamed around him. There was a decided panicked look on his face as his eyes landed on the Anbu that had attempted another attack while the Sannin was distracted. He didn't stand a chance once his former student had him in his grasp, his Anbu was sacrificed by the Sannin to buy himself some time. Seals appeared over Orochimaru's toketsu points and he collapsed, calling out for the four barrier holders to assist him.

Though they had used up a good portion of their chakra holding the barrier, they were in far better condition than anyone else on the rooftop at them moment and Hiruzen had to watch as Orochimaru escaped capture once again. It was painful to think what the man would do when he recovered, because the Sandaime Hokage had no doubts that the man would find a way to escape death… he always did.

Still, he ordered passing men to pursue the traitor and turned to the young genin and his injured men that had fought beside him. Helping the Anbu member who had lost his leg onto his remaining foot, he guided him to a more secure part of the rooftop so that when a medics arrived, they wouldn't fall through the compromised structure. He moved to help Kurama into the same area, but the young man was still standing, now looking out over the city with a look of a man who has seen such destruction and pain before.

"Humanity is on the precipice of change once more. Your determination to protect what is precious to you never ceases to amaze me." Kurama mused, watching as enemy shinobi were subdued.

"You speak as if you don't consider yourself one… I know the villagers haven't treated you the best, but they are wrong, you are not the monster they accuse you of being and I think today is the first step into proving to them that you aren't." Hiruzen encouraged, hoping that this village had not led another youth down the path of vengeance.

"Oh, you misunderstand, I hold no ill will toward them for their foolishness, nor do I fancy myself better than humans. However, despite past incarnations, I am in fact not a ningen. I was reborn in the form you know as Naruto and though I'm still him, I am not at the same time."

It was confusing to say the least and in a way Hiruzen was mourning the little boy who would pull pranks on the villagers. Kakashi had reported Naruto's changes and like many other things, he had buried his head in the proverbial sand to avoid seeing it. However, this situation was hardly one of his worst follies and he was loathed to admit it, but he could use this to his advantage.

Given enough time, Naruto, no this kitsune could be his ace in the hole with the right guidance. He was ashamed to realise how much that line of thinking reminded him of his old teammate Danzo. There was so much he hated about what that man did in the shadows and he would be truly damned if he would allow the memory of Naruto to be used in that way.

No, he wouldn't, couldn't push him down that path.

Tigress was first to get medical attention, her body broken in so many places that he recovery wasn't promising. Crane's missing leg was reattachable, as the cut had been clean, but it would be a long time before he could walk again on it and even then he would be hampered permanently by it.

Bending down to retrieve the mask from the Anbu that lay broken at his feet, he held back tears as he gazed into the empty eyes that stared back at him. Konohamaru would be devastated to know he would not be going home with his father tonight and that his mother might not survive until morning. Kurama came up beside him in silent comfort and he handed the young man his son's tiger mask. Taking the tattered remains of his Hokage robes, he mournfully covered the motionless body of his son.

If his wife was still alive, she would have never forgiven him for losing another of their precious children; perhaps it was time for him to retire again.

oOo

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AN: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed~ Until next time!


	11. Bonds

**CHAPTER XI**

 **(Bonds)**

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 _Friends help you plot revenge, but best friends help you get away with it._

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oOo

Sakura didn't know how to get his attention and it was her own fault. Ever since the end of the chunin exams she had fallen so hard for their silver haired teammate, that it ached just looking at him. It was painful to look at the way he unconsciously flirted with Hinata, he likely didn't realize he was doing it. The shy Hyuuga heiress deserved it, she had eyes only for Kurama since day one and Sakura hadn't been the kindest to Kurama in the past, but it still stung that he had seemingly landed her in the friend zone.

Sighing to herself, she watched as he grew a rose and handed it to the lavender eyed kunoichi, wishing it was her he was doting on. It didn't matter, she had tried to tell herself, she wanted him happy, but still the jealousy persisted. The tightness in her chest had her exhaling again, in a vain attempt to relieve the pressure around her heart, as he leaned in close to say his farewells to the girl.

She loved how soft spoken he had become and how graceful his every move seemed to be. It wasn't hard to imagine the reason why the Yondaime Hokage was so popular with the women of the village, if Kurama took after him like she suspected he now did. While Sasuke was still handsome and she would happily settle for him, he no longer held the appeal he once did to her.

It was sweet how both her boys had brought her flowers and for a moment she was content with that. Kurama was trying to teach her what he knew of poisons, in his meager spare time, but it wasn't enough for her. She wanted more and it was disconcerting, now that she thought back on it, how easily she had let her feelings for Sasuke ruin one friendship already. Sakura wasn't about to let it happen again. However, unlike what happened between her and Ino, she didn't want the budding friendship she had with Hinata to be crushed because of jealousy.

They had just finished their sixth group training with the rookie nine, plus team Gai. There were some glaringly obvious holes in their training, things that the Academy curriculum had neglected to teach them. It started as a small get together after D-rank missions, which consisted of helping clean up and repair the village, then kind of grew after that. Kurenai-Sensei had pointed out that she had only seen Naruto, and wasn't it weird hearing him called that, do water walking. It all kind of came together after that.

So they spent their evenings training and learning things they should have known already. Even Kurama was behind, despite his ability to pick things up almost the first try, he had just never been properly taught or someone had purposely sabotaged him. Considering what she knew of his Jinchuuriki status and what she could find out about others like him, she wasn't surprised to find out this little bit of information… but it still made her blood boil with white hot rage.

Groaning, Sakura turned to leave, they had been dismissed a few minutes ago, when she nearly walked into her Sensei. Looking up at his towering frame, she wondered when he had snuck up behind her. The jerk had probably planned it and had been spying on her.

"Change of heart?" He asked jovially, his only uncovered facial feature stupidly upturned as if it would make his fake, condescending smile anymore believable.

"It doesn't matter, he is obviously interested in someone else, not that I deserve his attention after ignoring him for so long." She growled, more in self loathing and deprecation that at her teacher. "Was there something you needed, Sensei?" She inquired, hostility fading from her tone as curiosity distracted her from her inner turmoil. Kakashi hadn't been at training today and she wondered what he had been up to.

"Actually, I need Sasuke, Kurama and you to come with me to see the Hokage, we have a mission." He said, the smiling eye dipping just enough to something more genuinely excited.

Kurama's ears twitched before his head swiveled in their direction, he tapped Sasuke on the shoulder and motioned at them, saying something to their dark haired teammate before the two of them started over. Sakura's face heated up the closer they got, if Kurama had heard Kakashi say that he needed the three of them, then it was likely he heard her confession too.

"I apologize, I don't mean to eavesdrop, but..." He trailed off sheepishly and Kakashi clapped his hands on his hips with false enthusiasm.

"Well, that makes things easier for me. That ability will certainly come in handy later." Kakashi chirped and Sakura had to wonder how it was that someone could sound so happy and be so ominous at the same time.

"You're in an awfully good mood." Sasuke grumbled, glaring daggers at their Sensei. It had been a long day and training had been especially demanding.

"Well… it was supposed to be a surprise, but for this mission our team is going to have another member." Now their Sensei looked as if Christmas had come early, clutching his copy of Icha Icha, rubbing his face against it like a horny cat and muttering about how awesome this was going to be.

Sakura frowned at that, she suspected it was the pervert that wrote those books and though he was supposedly a powerful member of Konoha, she didn't necessarily like the fact he was around to influence Kurama in his pervy ways. The only redeeming fact, was that whatever this mission was, she would be going along too. If that pervert so much as went near a peep hole with any one of them close by, she was confident enough with her meager knowledge of anatomy to do a frontal lobotomy. After all, it didn't take much medical skill to bash someone's skull in.

Apparently she had a dangerous look on her face, because Kakashi had hidden his book away and was nervously suggesting that they not keep the Hokage waiting any longer. At least the Silver haired Jonin hadn't tried to corrupt them with his love for smut, nor had he made any indication of actually being a pervert. It was odd, but it was the only reason Sakura could find that a kind, almost innocent appearing woman such a Botan, would hook up with such a man. It really made her wonder how well they actually knew their Sensei.

After all, they've never even seen his face before. How much could the really know, if they didn't even know what the man actually looked like? He could disguise his hair and sharingan in some way and unless Kurama could pick up the other man's scent, then they would likely never know it was him! It made her wonder if it hadn't already happened, like that one time with the photographer. For all they knew, their Sensei could have been one of the Anbu that busted them or working in cahoots with Sukea. Speaking of which, she hadn't seen the man around lately and wondered if he had found a big scoop to make himself a lot of money.

He had been kind of cute now that she thought back on it.

Shaking her head, that guy didn't compare to Kurama and she had more important things to worry about at the moment. Kakashi-Sensei was currently talking to the front desk secretary, asking her to let the Hokage know they were there to accept their mission. When she followed her teammates into the room, she wasn't surprised to see Jiraiya leaning against the wall near the balcony to the right of the Hokage's desk. What she didn't like were the little hearts in her Sensei's eyes.

"I've been expecting you, please shut the door behind you." The Hokage ordered and Sakura did as asked as she was the last one through the door. "You're probably wondering what kind of mission that could involved joining a team with my student here." The Hokage said and sheepishly Sakura had to admit she had been wondering that, even though her main focus was how to prevent the pervert from corrupting her love interest.

"As honored as I am to be doing a mission with such a legend, I am curious what kind of mission would require a Genin team and a Sannin." Kakashi said coolly, as if he hadn't been acting like an idiot ten minutes ago. It was amazing how quickly most Jonin of this village could flip personalities like that and Sakura wondered if that was what her inner self had been.

Did that mean she was less crazy than they were?

Not likely. Considering how she and Sasuke had been acting strange lately, it was probably a bad sign that she no longer heard a voice in her head. Maybe she was becoming like her Sensei? That was a scary thought, especially because when she flipped switches, she was rather violent and there was no way that Kurama would find such behavior attractive.

"Well, considering my age and the recent loss of my arm, I've decided it is time to pass on my hat and retire." The Hokage admitted to their shock. It was obvious the Hokage was getting older, but he always seemed so strong and it was hard to think of anyone else as the Hokage. "That's where you five come in."

"Don't tell me you're going to make the dobe Hokage." Sasuke balked with horror and the Hokage's barreling laugh that followed was contagious, making them chuckle along with him.

"As much as I'm sure he will be strong enough to take the hat someday, I'm afraid my retirement is going to have to come sooner than that. Which means we need someone strong enough to take the title of Hokage now." The Hokage's hollow sleeve twitched in the direction of the scroll on his desk before he frowned and set the pipe in his only hand down and retrieved the scroll on his desk to hand to Kakashi.

"Why tell us… unless the person you have chosen is not in the village." Kakashi asked dubiously, giving Jiraiya contemplative looks.

"You're not wrong brat, we're going to find my old teammate and drag her back here to be Hokage." Jiraiya confirmed and Sakura's eyes lit up.

The only other teammate they could be talking about was Senju Tsunade.

"Really, this is amazing!" She couldn't help gushing, Tsunade was the envy of all kunoichi across the Elemental Nations.

Not only was the last Senju the world's best medic-nin, she was also a front line fighter during the last shinobi war and beautiful to boot. Most medics couldn't fight their way out of an Academy obstacle course, let alone against trained shinobi. However, the Slug Sannin proved that a shinobi medic could be both and has paved the way for current medical practices. Things had stalled out after she left and it was a great loss to the village, loosing their best madic and the last of the Senju…

Unless Kurama really was a long lost Senju, but they weren't sure about that yet and the village could benefit greatly with her return.

"I'm glad you are excited, however, my wayward student isn't going to be easy to convince. Jiraiya here isn't going to be enough to bring her back, she's been away a long time and her love for the village is outweighed by the loss she has experienced before her self imposed exile." The Hokage admitted solemnly, gilt clouding his eyes and regret tugging down at the corners of his mouth.

"She's strong and I'm going to need all the help I can get, not only finding her, but convincing her to come back to the village." Jiraiya added and Sakura suspected there was more to this mission than met the eye. If it was just about bring her back to be inaugurated as Hokage, then Jiraiya should have been enough, past discrepancies aside...

"Not only that, but there is a very good chance you will not be the only ones seeking her out." The Hokage admitted and Sakura was surprised to be proven right so quickly. Usually something like this would be kept from them unless it became an issue.

"Orochimaru." Sasuke said, looking to Kurama. It was like the two of them had a telepathic conversation sometimes, as if they just knew what the other was thinking at any given time.

They both looked to her and suddenly it was as if she was privy to their silent conversation. They were worried that if they ran into the man again, he would make another attempt at Sasuke if Tsunade healed him. She silently vowed that they wouldn't let that happened and an agreement settled between them before they decided to speak up.

"Tsunade is the world's greatest medic, if anyone could reverse what I did to him with the chakra consuming plant, it would be her." Kurama sighed in defeat.

"Yeah and then he might try for Sasuke again." She added and the adults in the room seemed pleased they grasped the severity of the situation.

Just when they thought they had finally seen the last of the creep, it looked as if they would be facing him again sooner than they thought. There was also another exchange of looks going on between the Hokage and Kakashi-Sensei and Sakura had to wonder what more could be going on with this mission. There was a distinct, nagging feeling that made her think there was an underneath for the underneath for this mission and Sakura hoped that this wouldn't get any of them killed.

Well, then she would just have to look after her boys.

"Alright, go pack and meet Jiraiya and I at the south-west gate in one hour. Be sure to bring enough for an extended mission, we're not sure where Tsunade-sama is at the moment and this could take a while." Kakashi ordered and Sakura nodded along with her teammates, following them out of the office, just knowing their Sensei was going to talk about something they didn't want them knowing.

The three of them parted ways and Sakura headed home to pack. She greeted her father, who was sitting at the table reading the evening news while her mom was cooking dinner. Telling her mother she wouldn't be staying for dinner, Sakura went to her room and began digging out her traveling gear. It took her about half an hour to gather all of her stuff and she was gone for the gate with hardly any time to spare.

Kurama and Sasuke had beat her there, both of them leaning against the wall by the south-west gate. "How did you guys get here so quick?" Sakura asked and both shrugged as if it weren't that impressive.

"I never really unpacked from our last mission, I just freshened up my supplies and left it as is." Kurama said and Sasuke nodded.

"Same." He said and Sakura blushed, fidgeting. Her mother had made her unpack her things and put them away. Sakura had wanted to do just like the other two members of her team had, but her mother didn't want her bag just sitting around her room as it was too heavy to hang in the closet. Sometimes her parents civilian mentally really clashed with her shinobi training. The differences could be really annoying sometimes and if it wasn't so expensive to live by herself, she would have moved out when she became a Genin.

"You could learn from your students Kakashi, they're early instead of late." Jiraiya teased as he and their Sensei showed up at the same time.

"But then it would make me boringly predictable." He said without shame and earned himself an approving pat on the back from the Sannin.

"You are predictable... predictably late." Sakura grumbled under her breath, Kurama's snort told her he had heard and she gave his a sly smile.

"Did you say something Sakura?" Kakashi asked 'innocently' and looked to her with that fake smile again.

"I staid since you're late, we shouldn't waste anymore time." She said out loud and took off in the direction of their latest mission.

Thankfully, they didn't travel far that evening, just to the next small farm town. They were settled into the small inn for the night while their Sensei and Jiraiya asked around the local bar for a lead on the Slug Sannin. It was disheartening to learn that Tsunade had fallen into a life of gambling a drinking. Hearing a legend such as the her falling into such a life was sickening and Sakura wondered if the same would ever happen to her.

"Are you alright Sakura-chan?" Kurama looked up questioningly from where he was making his bed. Sasuke was laying down facing the wall, with his back to them, ignoring them.

"Yeah, it's just sad that even someone as strong as Tsunade could turn out so…" She trailed off, sighing and climbing into her own bed. "I was just wondering what I would do if I lost you guys… I can't honestly say I wouldn't do the same as she has."

Kurama hummed at that and she layed down with a tired sigh, pulling the covers over her head. The bed dipped behind her and Sakura peeked out just enough to see Kurama sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at her. Blushing, she wondered what he was doing so close to her and poked her head out from under the covers.

"Sakura, I promise you, that Sasuke and I will do our best to keep you from experiencing such a thing. It's the least we could do, after all you saved our lives in the forest of death." Kurama said, though it sounded like a silent threat toward Sasuke more than trying to cheer her up, which actually ended up lifting her mood some.

"Thank me by staying alive, alright? I just have a bad feeling about this mission and I don't like it." Sakura admitted. "I care about you too much."

"Understood." Kurama said, standing and she really doubted that he did. He was back over by his bed when he paused and turned back to her. "The next town we stop in, would you like to go on a date? I know you have feelings for Sasuke, but-" He started and she shot up in her bed. "-I was hoping you might humor me."

Was she really hearing this? Or had she fell asleep? "I-" She swallowed and cleared her throat. "I would love to!" She said without thinking, turning a worried look to her dark hair teammate. "I'm sorry Sasuke, but my feelings for you have changed, I… hope you don't mind?" She asked nervously, they had been getting closer lately and she feared this might ruin the tentative comrade they had built.

"Finally." Sasuke sighed, relaxing further into his bed. "I have never held feelings for you in that manner, if you want to be with the dobe, then I have no problem with it so long as it doesn't affect our training. I need to get stronger and I don't want to two of you slowing me down." He stated, pulling his blanket over himself, not bothering to even turn and look at them.

"I'm sorry." Sakura apologised and Kurama glowered at Sasuke before sighing.

"I don't think he meant it exactly like that, but before the mission to Wave country, none of us were teammates. Sure we shared the same team number, but we weren't comrades working together. Sasuke has made it very clear he has goals and I can't blame him for wanting to get stronger." Kurama pointed out and Sakura thought back to when they first introduced themselves and how one of Sasuke's goals was to kill a certain man, likely the one who killed his clan.

"Well, we've seen what one teammate having ambitions that the others didn't agree with does to a team." Sakura started off, getting the attention of the other two males at her harsh tone.

"Sakura, I don't think that-" Kurama started off, but she cut him off when Sasuke sat up with a glare directed at her, but she didn't falter.

"So we're just going to have to help you hunt down the man who killed your clan as a team." She finished, crossing her arms and nodding to herself determinedly.

"I don't need or want your help." Sasuke stated coldly, as if it were the end of the subject and maybe before, when she had been fangirling over him, she would have dropped it, but not now.

"Yeah and how are you going to find him?" She demanded, drawing his attention. "What if he doesn't work alone, did you ever think of that? Maybe he didn't work alone the night your clan was killed, even a kage wouldn't have been able to take down that many Uchiha alone. Even you could take down a team of shinobi by yourself." She reasoned and it was something that had been bothering her ever since the day she found out the Uchiha had been wiped out.

How could one man kill that many people without drawing at least some attention?

"I don't know, but I'll figure it out." Sasuke growled dangerously and Sakura flung the covers off herself and sat up.

"I'm not saying we're going to stop you from killing whoever killed your clan, or even interfere with you fighting him, Sasuke. However, what I am saying is we're going to make sure it's you who walks away from that battle alive, as your teammates, it's the least we can do to help you achieve your goals and if I'm not going to be Mrs. Uchiha, then come hell or high water, I'm going to help you find and kill the man that gave you a reason for the other half of your goals." Sakura wasn't sure when she had stood up, nor when Sasuke had, but they were now almost inches apart, glaring each down.

Sasuke broke eye contact first and Kurama was there between them, guiding Sakura back to sit on her bed. "Please calm down, we're not going to resolve anything by fighting."

That was funny coming from him, just a little over a month ago he and Sasuke were at each other's throats and Sakura was the one afraid they would try to kill each other. When had things changed so drastically?

"Sasuke, look, we both care about you. It's not easy making bonds after what you've been through, but this will get better and you will get strong enough to stop the man who killed your clan. Just, let us help you get there, alright?" Kurama's silver tail was swishing behind him as he spoke and Sakura would have giggled if the situation weren't so serious as it was brushing her leg where she sat on the bed behind him.

"Hn." Sasuke flopped back down on his bed, pulling the covers back over himself and rolling over to face the wall his bed was situated by.

Sighing to himself, Kurama turned back to her and helped her crawl back into her own bed. "Goodnight, Sakura-chan." He whispered and then finally settled into his own bed by the door, turning the light off as he did.

"Goodnight, Kurama." She whispered back, knowing he would hear her.

She was so wound at the moment, she didn't really feel tired anymore. Between arguing with Sasuke and Kurama actually giving her a chance, she was conflicted on whether to be excited or worried. She tossed for what seemed like hours and wondered what her Sensei was up to with that pervert Jiraiya. They wouldn't know when the two of them returned, as the two adults were sharing a room across the hall, but it would be nice to know that they weren't out womanizing the local females. Really, Kakashi had Botan now and shouldn't be hanging out with a man who likes to peep on naked women.

"Uchiha Itachi."

Nearly jumping out of her skin, Sakura rolled over to look at Sasuke, he hadn't budged, but it was him who had spoke.

"Pardon?" Kurama asked, lifting his head from his pillow to get a better look of the dark room, he looked as if he had been dozing off when Sasuke had spoke.

"The man who killed my clan, his name is Uchiha Itachi and he's my older brother… goodnight."

This time Sasuke breathing evened out in actual sleep and Sakura was hesitant to wake him to ask more questions. However, it was proof, evidence that they had finally reach him, even just a little. It must have taken a lot for Sasuke to reveal that to them and Sakura wasn't about to make him regret it. They might have a long road ahead of them, but they were going to do it together, no matter what.

Besides, she had a date to look forward to, she wasn't going to let some psycho Sannin or a familial murderer drag her boys from her.

Never.

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AN: I might not be updating for a couple of weeks. I'm going to be going to a friends house in the next week or so and I'm not sure if I'll have a lot of time to write. However, I will update as soon as I can. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, until next time~


	12. Kidnapping Gone Wrong

oOo

 **CHAPTER XII**

 **(Kidnapping Gone Wrong)**

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oOo

It took several days to reach the next town over and though things had gotten less tense between the three of them, Sasuke and Sakura were still at each other's throats. The bite to their words had lessened and their arguments held no heat behind them, but it was driving him to the point of contemplating murder for some silence. If that wasn't enough, Kakashi fangirling over Jiraiya was making him incredibly uncomfortable.

Shaking the tension from his shoulders, Kurama was irritated when an attractive young woman caught Jiraiya and Kakashi's eye. They told the three of them to find an inn for the night and promptly about-faced in the direction she wandered off to. Sighing in exasperation, it was still early, so three of them raced to the inn, Sasuke and Sakura fighting over who got to use the shower along the way. In the end, Sakura got the first bath and then him, reasoning with Sasuke that he would have uninterrupted bath time once they left on their date. This consoled the Uchiha heir and Kurama put on his nicer clothes and readied his Gama-chan for the weight-loss program he was about to go on.

It was a good thing too, because even though Sakura wasn't a hard person to please and was actually rather mindful of asking for things, the town was one of the more expensive ones to shop in. Several districts were upper-class nobles and shop owners were looking for any way to squeeze an extra coin from unsuspecting customers. If you weren't careful, you could end up paying through the nose for something that was valued at half that price in the next town over. Even still, they managed to enjoy a reasonably priced dinner and pick up a treat or two to share.

"Ooo, Kurama look!" Sakura said, pulling him towards one of the many old machines outside of a brightly lit gambling shop. "Janken Pon!"

Curiously, it was giving off a faint reiki reading and just the slightest sense of yoki. If he didn't know any better, he would think this was…

"Genkai?" He murmured in astonishment, staring at the name at the top of the score board.

"What was that Kurama?" Sakura asked curiously as he slipped the necessary coins in for her to play the game.

Looking up at her and giving her a smile, he pointed to the name, it wouldn't hurt anything, it wasn't as if she would know who Genkai was. "I think this machine used to belong to someone I knew a long time ago. She had a passion for arcade games." Kurama said fondly and his smile widened when she smile brightly at him before her attention was drawn back to the blinking machine.

"Oh, it's started." She said, smacking the rock first per tradition and then the game picked up pace.

Having glanced at the scores before hand, Kurama was confident Sakura wouldn't score very high. She was pretty good at the game, her reflexes and reaction time were well beyond what they would have been a couple of months ago. Kurama was proud of the woman she was slowly becoming. However, with a game like this, it was designed to test spirit awareness, you would only score high if you had a tapped into your spirit energy. Shinobi actually had high levels of reiki considering how long it has been since there were humans who knew how to mold just reiki. He had to admit combining reiki with physical energy and mental energy turned it into a force to be reckoned with on it's own, but it limited what humans could achieve with it.

"Yeah!" Sakura exclaimed smugly and Kurama felt his stomach do a flop when he saw her score.

There were several names above her score, all but one of them Genkai's name and that was Kuwabara… there was a three point difference in the scores.

From what he remembered back when he first met Yusuke, when the spirit detective attended Genkai's tournament, they competed in games like these to gauge their worthiness to be trained by the Master herself. Just below Sakura's name was some other names and three below that, sure enough was Urameshi's name.

"What's wrong? Afraid you won't score as high as me?" Sakura teased jokingly and Kurama chuckled lightly to play off his inner revelations.

"I've never been too good at this game, would you like to play it again?"

"No, thank you, this game was fun, but I would rather enjoy the rest of our date together." She linked her arm with his and snuggled into his side with a sad sigh.

After a moment, when her gloomy mood didn't vanish, he led her to a small park and to the nearest tree he could find. Guiding some of his yoki into the indigenous plant, he coerced it into forming a swing comprised of vines and helped Sakura hop onto it.

"Why the melancholy?" He asked casually, wondering for the first time if perhaps she was in fact older than she seemed. "Am I a terrible date?"

Shaking her head vigorously, she held on tightly to the vines as he gave her a gentle push. "No, you've been great and I never want this to end, but I know it will…" She said almost too softly for him to hear, even with his heightened senses.

"Why would it end? I have real feelings for you, Sakura, not just as a friend." He admitted gently. He knew there was a chance, where she was so young, that she might only have a crush on him and that her feelings weren't more than that of a friend's love.

"That's not what I meant… I have feelings for you as well, b-but so doesn't Hinata." Sakura looked on the verge of tears as the swing slowed to a stop. "She's been in love with you since before we started the academy and I was so mean to you in the past… how can you still like me?"

Stepping around the swing, Kurama crouched so that he was eye level with her and brushed a strand of bang form her forehead. "Sakura, that doesn't matter." He began and when it looked as if she was about to get mad on Hinata's behalf he put a finger to her lips to halt her rant. "Kitsune are promiscuous creatures by nature, I've already asked Hinata about her feelings and she's understands that I desire to restart my own clan."

"Oh, that explains why you were openly flirting with Hinata… and she's okay with you dating other girls too? Like a poly-amorous relationship?" She asked, they had spent the better part of three days traveling with two perverts, the subject of concubines and poly-amorous relationships had come up when Kakashi had mentioned Sasuke's goal to revive his clan.

"Yes, something like that, but there will be time to think that over, Sakura-chan." Leaning in, Kurama kissed her on the cheek and then stood, offering her a hand. "Come on, it's getting late and though we've gotten stronger, we shouldn't be out at night in a place like this."

Blushing, she took his hand and then linked their arms together, snuggling into his side with a contented smile. Kurama couldn't help his own smile, he'd been alone for so long in this lifetime. Though he had his past memories, the ones as Naruto were the most prominent and fresh. The craving to have someone smile at him when he returned home almost hurt more now that he remembered being Kurama, than when I never knew those feelings as Naruto. However, if things continued as they were, he wouldn't have to face that loneliness for very much longer.

When they reached the floor of their hotel, Kurama could here a deep chuckle from around the corner. Unsure if it was other guests, Kurama rounded the corner without a second thought. The two of them halted at the scene in front of them and Kurama shoved Sakura into an empty room before she was spotted. His movement drew the attention of the three people standing at the threshold of their room. Sasuke's face was a mix of panic and rage, clearly whoever these two were, they were not allies.

"Run! They're here for you too!" Sasuke shouted, doubling over and heaving when the tall redheaded guy with the receding hairline punched him in the gut.

Kurama recognized him as one of the four barrier holders during the chunin exam invasion. The second man with him was shorter, had long white hair and was sickly pale. He didn't know who the other guy was, but it was likely safe to assume they worked for Orochimaru considering they were wearing the same tan and purple outfit with the yin yang symbol it was a safe bet. Drawing his rose whip, Kurama stood ready as he prepared himself for the fight that was sure to follow.

"If you want to live, I would suggest you step away from my friend." His eyes narrowed when it didn't get a reaction from the white haired man, who was in fact still glaring down at Sasuke.

"You hear that Kimimaro, this punk thinks he can take us on." Jirobo scoffed, balling his fists. "I say we teach the gaki a lesson before he drag him back to Orochimaru-sama."

The white haired man, Kimimaro if Jirobo was to be believed, sighed in a bored manner and his face lacked any visible expression. "Gather the Uchiha, he is the most important to Orochimaru-sama, I will deal with this one." He ordered, clearly the one in charge.

Lashing out to prevent Jirobo from moving toward Sasuke, Kurama was surprised to find his whip caught in Kimimaro's hand. He hadn't even seen him move, whoever this guy was, he wasn't someone Kurama should underestimate. "Petals and thorns."

The whip dissolved turning into the aforementioned weapon and they turned on the two Oto-nin in a rain of sharp fury. However, just as the whip had been caught, Kimimaro stood there passively with a bone shaped kunai and his petals were severed in half, to fall uselessly to the floor. The speed this shinobi possessed was unreal. It was at the level Hiei's was when he first met him and that wasn't something to snuff at. Kurama frowned and decided that this tactic wasn't going to work.

Pulling a kunai of his own, Kurama moved to attack when Jirobo tried to go after a recovering Sasuke again. Once more he was waylaid by Kimimaro and if he had been anyone else, his patients would be wearing thin by now. Even still he detested being kept away from something he was after, even if it was just trying to protect a friend.

"Kurama, stop worrying about me and just focus on that freak, this loser caught me by surprise, but I can deal with him." Sasuke growled, his sharingan whirling lazily in both eyes.

"Who you calling a loser?!" Jirobo bellowed angrily and tried to level Sasuke with a chakra powered punch.

Content that Sasuke could handle Jirobo on his own, at least for a few minutes, Kurama's attention was returned to the man he had locked blades with. He punched Kimimaro in the solar plexus with his free hand, but it didn't faze the pale man. There was a distinct crunching sound that permeated from his opponent's ribs, he had broke enough of them in his time to recognise the sound. Just when Kurama began to think he had actually done some damage, he was forced to back off when the man's ribcage spiked out from his torso. Sharp bone spears curling around to create a grotesque armor that would have shredded his hand if he had hesitated a moment longer.

Apparently the bone shaped kunai was, in fact, a kunai shaped bone. It was an odd revelation to have in the middle of a battle, but Kurama was a quick thinker and quick on his feet. They traded blows again, before Kurama got a good slash in on the man's cheek. This seemed to incur some kind of reaction as Kimimaro frowned, wiping the blood from his wound before his bones began to shift around his upper arm and shoulder.

Pulling a long bone from his shoulder, that resembled a sword, Kimimaro changed his fighting stance. "Dance of the Camellia."

It came out as almost a whisper and Kurama barely dodged the sword strikes as Kimimaro's attacks almost doubled in speed. As it was, several of the attacks grazed him on the outer thigh and upper arm area. It was just when he went for an opening that he realized his mistake. Expecting the blow that never came, Kurama turned enough to see Sasuke had blocked the stab that would have speared him through the back. About to thank his teammate, there was a shout and a sound of bone braking.

"Ahh!"

The two of them turned to see a mess of pink hair between them and Jirobo, who had attempted to take advantage of Sasuke's distraction. The arm Sakura had used to block Jirobo's attack was hanging limply at her side, bone protruding from her forearm. A scowl tore across her face after the initial bout of pain and she still clutched a kunai in her good hand, ready to defend them despite her injury.

The dark markings curling up Jirobo's body indicated to Kurama that the Oto-nin was just starting to show his true strength and it was going to take a little more than scaring them off to get rid of them. Looking to Sasuke, they agreed silently that Sasuke would take down Jirobo and Kurama would deal with Kimimaro, both swearing to protect Sakura at all costs.

Kimimaro had stringed markings creeping up his neck and across his body when Kurama's attention was fully on him once more. By the time the curse mark stopped moving, there wasn't a part of him that wasn't covered in the amalgamated dark lines that closely resembling a circuit board. Kurama was prepared for the attack, even still, bone bowed dangerously under the impact as he was hurled down the hall and through the closed window.

The sensation of being airborne was trumped by the wind being knocked from his lungs. Cynically, Kurama couldn't help but liken it to being on the ocean, water all around, but not a drop to drink. Gravity didn't even have a chance to take hold of him before Kimimaro was on him again, delivering a blow which sent him crashing to the ground. Even if they hadn't decided to take on opponents separately, clearly the enemy was trying to separate them.

Ground crumbled beneath his aching body and darkness swam at the edges of his vision after so long without oxygen. Whoever this guy was, he clearly was much stronger than the other Otogakure Shinobi that had been present during the invasion.

" _ **Use my power."**_

Unsure what he was hearing, Kurama's ears twitched as the sky seemed to get brighter and dim at the same time. He was Shuichi merged with Yoko, they were now one person now…

So who was he hearing?

A thrum of power coursed through his body, the beating of his heart played like drums on his ears. He wasn't completely unaware that this was likely adrenaline kicking in, or a yokai version of it, but the power that was radiating from him wasn't his own yoki.

" _ **Get up and kick his ass!"**_

The voice goaded and Kurama did just that. When his eyes regained clarity, air filling his lungs and the pain of his wounds burning away, he was greeted with chakra so dense, he could see it curling the air like heat waves. Never before had he tasted power so seductively destructive. It left him to wondered if this was what Hiei or Yusuke's power would have felt like. Kurama's own power was derived from life, in fact most kitsune's yoki was…

All but one.

' _I wounded when you would finally wake...'_

"You are strong for someone who has yet to receive Orochimaru-sama's gift of power, but it means little, I will bring you to him either way." Kimimaro stated, a manic look taking over his face and Kurama could have swore the man sounded bitter over that fact.

"What, disappointed Orochimaru favors Sasuke and I over you." Kurama taunted, not even sure he had read the tone right. However, when rage twisted the impassive, delicate face, he knew he had hit a sore point. "Pretty soon he'll just toss you aside like he did the people he used to invade Konoha. Why serve someone like that?" Kurama was genuinely curious, even though he was only using it to manipulate his opponent.

" **Y** OU KN **O** W NOTH **ING!** " Kimimaro shouted, charging at Kurama.

Side stepping the bone wielding Oto-nin, Kurama rammed his elbow into the man's back. It wasn't as effective as he would have like, the hit landed, only for him to have to jerk away as Kimimaro's spine was covered in spiked ridges. With a burst of speed, Kurama landed hit after hit, knocking Kimimaro around. However, every time his struck, bone would appear to protect the vulnerable area, to the point his opponent was starting to look like a deranged porcupine.

Even through the haze of dense chakra and unadulterated rage, Kurama noticed the shift in Kimimaro. His skin became ashen and dark blotches formed around his eyes, which had turned black with golden irises. The surge of power from the previously white haired man was immense, but not quite at the level Kurama was radiating. However, it quickly closed the gap in speed and strength between to two, forcing him to defend himself once more.

A lance like spear was thrust at him at an alarming speed. He dodged to the best of his ability and managed to get in a swipe with his claws, but it was merely surface damage, hardly hindering his opponent in anyway. The lance punctured a nearby wall and from inside Kurama could see people who weren't able to evacuate cowering inside.

"If you cease now and surrender, you can walk away from this with your life." Kurama stated, guiding Kimimaro away from the building and back toward the inn should any other attempted hits miss.

"Never, I am loyal to Orochimaru-sama, something you could never understand and I will complete this mission." Kimimaro growled and readied for another strike.

It was time to end this.

Summoning his yoki once more, Kurama called forth something that had only been used a handful of times in his previous life. "Shoku Yō Shokubutsu, _Devourer Demon Plant_."

Redwood roots sprang from the ground, curling up around them and Kurama held absolutely still as to not tempt the plant to turn on its master. The ends began to bulb and weep acidic saliva before it spread its giant maws. Incidentally, Kimimaro had halted in surprise at the change in tactic, giving a moment's pause as his roots took form.

Time seemed to slow down as Kurama begged Kimimaro with his eyes not to move, but it was for not when the Oto-nin charged forward once more, sealing his fate. The first thing consumed by his roots was the bone lance. One of them bit it in half while the others converged on Kimimaro like a pack of savage dogs. There was an anguished scream from the man before all was still once more.

Recalling Shoku Yō Shokubutsu to its base form, Kurama picked up the discarded bone sword and sealed it into a storage scroll. There was an explosion from the inn, which scared off most of the people who had began to see if is was safe to come out. Black flames covered the the gaping hole and an unrecognisable corpse fell from the opening. In his rush to see if it was Sasuke who had fallen he ran into two guys gawking at the scene.

"Sorry, the situation should be under control now, even still you probably shouldn't linger!" Kurama shouted at the strangely dressed men, their straw hats and black cloaks with red clouds billowing in the wind created by the explosion of black flames.

Dashing up the side of the building, Kurama entered via the broken window he had been chucked from earlier in the fight and was met with a shell shocked Sasuke. Even more strange was the fact he was gripping the center of his forehead with an arm covered in a spiraling black dragon. A yoki he had not felt in millenia permeated from the flames and Kurama knew for certain that the shocking similarities between Sasuke and Hiei were more than just mere coincidences.

"Hiei?" Kurama asked tentatively and when he didn't receive a response, he stepped a little closer. "Sasuke?"

Light seemed to return to the Uchiha heir's eyes and they drifted to Kurama's own reflective ones, the tomoe still lazily swirling. It was likely that he was dangerously low on chakra, summoning the Darkness Flames was a feat that had drained even Hiei, let alone a Genin human.

"Kurama?" Sasuke asked hesitantly, still gripping his forehead and trembling slightly. "I-I think I killed him." He stammered out, finally blinking. "There was a voice, it was…" Sasuke shook his head and removed his hand, letting his arm drop. Only then did he notice the new marking on his arm. "Where did this come from?"

It was clear to Kurama, that even though Sasuke might contain the soul of his long dead friend, he didn't remember being Hiei, at least, not yet. "Perhaps it is part of the curse mark or maybe has something to do with these black flames." He offered 'helpfully', he couldn't claim to know where they came from, but he didn't want to freak his teammate out either.

"Yeah, maybe, but if they don't go out soon, they're going to completely destroy the building." To emphasize Sasuke's point, a large piece of plaster crumbled to the ground.

"Try to snuff it out with your chakra, concentrate and will it to return." Another helpful hint, one he only knew to give because Hiei once described how the Dragon of Darkness Flame worked. Bandaging his arm to cover the Dragon, Sasuke raised said arm and concentrated on the flames slowly devouring the building.

It took a few minute, but Sasuke was eventually able to recall the flames, leaving behind charred rubble. It was about that time that their Sensei and Jiraiya returned, followed by the inn manager, who was rightfully freaking out about the damage. Immediately Jiraiya began cajoling the man, smooth talking his way out of responsibility of paying for repairs and Kakashi directed them from the inn, gathering up an injured Sakura along the way.

"What happened here?" Kakashi asked quietly once they were well on their way to another inn down the street.

"Orochimaru's henchmen got the jump on us." Sasuke grunted irritably, hands stuffed in his pocket. "They wanted Kurama and I for some reason or another."

"Well we know why he wants you, but I shudder to think what he wanted me for." Kurama admitted and even Sasuke blanched at the idea.

"You did well protecting each other, a broken arm wasn't what I was expecting to find when I saw the damage to the inn." Kakashi said, ruffling Sasuke's hair, making it stick in even more strange angles than before. None of them had come out of the fight clean, let alone completely unscathed.

Though for some reason Kurama felt as if he had, even though he had garnered several pretty bad cuts during his fight with Kimimaro, there was no trace of them now. There was only one explanation and it was likely the other kitsune sealed in his gut. By the glances Kakashi kept shooting him, it was likely the fact that Kurama had tapped into the other kitsune's power that had attracted their Sensei and Jiraiya back to the inn, otherwise they might have not shown up until much later. Either way, Kurama was glad that they had managed to come out of the ordeal no worse for wear. A broken arm would mend and they had proven, once again, that their team was quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with.

"Thanks Sensei, for training us." Sakura stated meekly, a happy tear, or maybe one of pain, trailed down her face as she hugged the silver haired man.

Kakashi awkwardly patted her head, Kurama and Sasuke showing their own appreciation with a simple nod of thanks. She let go shortly after and they all trudged into the inn they would be staying in for the remainder of the evening. Once clean and wounds were tended to, the rest of the evening was privy to sleep and recovery.

* * *

oOo

Morning came late the next day, Kakashi and Jiraiya had opted to let them rest before they continued onto the next town. Naturally, it was evening by the time they reached Tanzaku Quarters, the largest gambling den in Hi no Kuni. The whole village was nothing but lights and dings from machines and shouts of triumph or fury over the latest game. It could literally take days to travel from one side of the city to the other, let alone to find Tsunade, who likely didn't want to be found.

Dropping their things off at the inn they planned to stay in for the foreseeable future, team seven and Jiraiya set out to search for Tsunade. They tackled the streets it in pairs, each group checking different sides of the path to cover as much ground as possible without getting separated. After the attack the day before and having traveled the whole day, it was decided this would be the safest way to do things. However, they all were getting tired when midnight rolled around. The only two things they had managed to dig up was the fact Tsunade owed a lot of people, a lot of money and that there had been a showdown between her and Orochimaru earlier in the day.

"Alright, let's call it a night and get something to eat, I could use a drink, how about you Kakashi?" Jiraiya asked, slumped over and already lifting the curtain to enter an eatery that looked affordable.

"Yeah, we might as well, it's not likely she's still in the area with all those debt collectors arou-" They all bumped into each other, Jiraiya having halted almost as soon as he entered the restaurant and all four of them peer around the overly tall man.

There, sitting toward the back, shuffling a deck of cards, was none other than Senju Tsunade.

"Would you look at that." Jiraiya breathed, flabbergasted at the fact they had literally stumbled upon her.

Kakashi was already flanking any back entrances, as it didn't take long for Tsunade to spot them. She didn't move to try and leave, either because she knew she was surrounded, or was confident enough that if she didn't like what they had to say, she could make her own way out. Given that she was a Sannin, one known for her strength and skills as a medic, it was likely the latter option she was betting on.

Jiraiya sat first, followed by Kurama, Sasuke and Sakura, Kakashi was still nowhere to be seen, skulking somewhere in the shadows. There was a dark haired woman sitting next to Tsunade, she was eyeing the blond bombshell nervously, likely afraid of the Slug Sannin's reaction, clearly they weren't a welcome sight.

"What are you doing here, Jiraiya?" She demanded after a long, awkward stare down with the Toad Sage.

"We're here to bring you back to the village." He hedged gently, accepting the deck of cards from her to shuffle himself as they settled into the seats across from her.

"Oh and what could be so important that you were sent here to drag me back? You know I won't go willingly." She stated conversationally, the veiled threat hardly hidden in her calm demeanor. Accepting the cards back, she cut the deck to show her card, handing it back to Jiraiya to do the same.

She frowned when her card showed higher than his, meaning she had won whatever little game they had been offhandedly playing. "Sensei wants you to be the next Hokage."

The tension in the air was cloying, almost to the point Kurama was hardpressed not to run as quickly and as far away as possible. Sasuke wasn't looking much better and Sakura's hand was shook as she paused while reaching for a cup of tea.

"You'd have to be a special kind of stupid to want to become Hokage. Just look at all the previous Hokage's, all willing to die and look where that got them, dead. Tch, even Sarutobi-Sensei almost met the same fate." Her words were bitter and Kurama had to wonder what she had seen in her days to twist her heart into such a gruesome shape.

"If you don't want the possition so bad, then why remain a Konoha shinobi at all." Kurama sneered, he despised cowards and that was what this all boiled down to. She had given up and run away from her problems. "How do you think those you left behind feel? You're nothing but a coward, you don't deserve the title of Hokage."

"And just who do you think you are?" She hissed not unlike the Snake Sannin, who was once her teammate, but had became a missing-nin. "Playing at being Hokage, count me out, it's a fool's game." She spat, putting her cards down and that was the final straw.

"I'm gonna knock that cynical sneer off your face, Cha!" Sakura of all people snarled, the table snapping in half under her good hand when she slammed it down. "No one talks about the Hokage that way!"

"Are you challenging me brat? Do you know who I am?" Tsunade demanded and Kurama ignored her, gently placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder and guiding her back into her seat.

Lifting the two table pieces together, Kurama coerced it to mend itself, much to the shock of Tsunade and the dark haired woman next to her.

"Y-you, you're a Senju!" The woman exclaimed, nearly dropping the pink pig in her lap wearing a pearl necklace and red vest. "And you possess the Mokuton! How is that possible?"

"It doesn't matter, that was a clever tactic, trying to use the brat to bait me back to the village Jiraiya, but it's not going to work. The Senju are dead and that's probably just an ability that resembles my Grandfather's Mokuton." Tsunade scoffed, subconsciously running her fingers over the smooth surface of the table.

"Oh, it's the Mokuton alright and you know who my parents were. I can smell a familial relation between us and it disgusts me to think that you could abandon not only someone who is clearly related to you, but a village that you swore to protect. People die whether they are the Hokage or not, Tsunade, but at least the Hokage is willing to help protect those who can't defend themselves." Kurama stood, along with Sasuke and Sakura.

"You're not worth our time." Sakura all but spat as they moved to another table to enjoy their meal in peace. Disappointments aside, they were still tired and hungry.

"I can't believe that is one of the Legendary Sannin, at least Orochimaru lives up to his name, he's definitely a snake obsessed psycho." Sasuke grumbled, stabbing his food rudely and then cramming it into his mouth. It was a feat of sulleness that Kurama had only ever seen Hiei perform and it eased a tension he didn't know was there by having his friend so close once more.

'Even better…' His eyes trailed to Sakura, remembering the beautiful woman Genkai had been in her youth and the one Sakura was sure to become.

"To think I wanted to be like her, she's just a selfish drunkard." Sakura agreed just as sullenly from beside him, pushing her food around her plate and mixing it all together.

They were both right and Kurama couldn't fault them for their point of view, but he also understood Tsunade's side of things. He had lost everyone he had ever cared about and was having to relive his life over. When he allowed himself to dwell on such things, the feeling of loss was almost crippling. However, that didn't excuse her wallowing in self pity and shutting out those who still cared for her.

"Don't be too harsh on her, she could turn her life around, she just lacks motivation." Their Sensei stated, settling into the booth with a tired sigh. "I was no better than her at one point in my life."

This surprised the three of them, it was rare their Sensei said anything about his past. Sakura asked what he meant and he told them how his father had committed suicide. He explained because of that, he swore to always follow the rules to the letter and that it took losing his teammate, his best friend, to realize that protecting his comrades was more important.

"Wow, it's really hard to imagine you on time for anything, Kakashi-Sensei." Sakura teased, trying to lighten the mood.

"You wound me, I'm on time for all kind of things and I'm never late." Kakashi mock cried.

"Yeah and who are you trying to convince? Name one thing you're on time for." Sasuke challenged. It was hardly a secret that no one on their team enjoyed waiting for their Sensei to arrive.

"I arrive exactly when I mean to." He boasted and Sakura shot up in indignation, pointing accusingly at him.

"So you do show up late on purpose!"

Kakashi just smiled innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about, just because you don't know how to tell time doesn't mean that I'm late."

Frowning, Kurama had to pause before he tried to refute what his Sensei had said. This lead to him wondering if there was a trick or a tell to the tardiness. Which got to thinking about what kind of career his Sensei likely led and what sort of customs had changed over the last twenty or so years. Only one thing stood out that made sense and he was surprised he hadn't noticed it sooner.

"You don't go by a clock." This drew the attention of his other two teammates and Kakashi looked at him, waiting patiently for him to elaborate. "You go by the placement of the sun, which adding variables of anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the time of year, you are, in a roundabout way, on time."

"Yeah, but if that's the case, then how come he's never late for missions?" Sasuke questioned and Kakashi chuckled.

"It's only been in the last ten years or so that clocks have come into common use, the Hokage just tells me when the missions are in non-daylight-savings time instead." Kakashi said jovially, clearly proud they had found the underneath to his tardiness.

Never let it be said that Hatake Kakashi didn't do passive teaching.

"Wow Sensei, you're old." Sakura grumbled. "Even old people can be cool and up to date, but you're one of those people who are old from the moment they're born."

The all shared a chuckle at their Sensei's sulking, trying his hardest to prove he wasn't lame… by acting more lame than usual.

"I never thought I would see the day that Hatake would take his very own team of brats." Tsunade stated pausing as she was about to walk by.

"Well, things change and these 'brats' are special, I'm proud of the shinobi they are becoming." Kakashi said, making her halt for a moment before she continued on her way.

Ear twitching in irritation, Kurama stood and slid from the booth, ignoring Kakashi's questions of where he was going. It took a little bit of jogging, since his stride was much short than he was used to, in order to catch up with Tsunade. The boldness of sliding in front of her was a carry over from this life's personality, he was much more subtle the first time around, but it got the result he was looking for.

"Wait, you can't just walk away like this." He said, ignoring the quite waving for him to stop from the black haired assistant. "So let's make a bet, if I can land a hit on you, you have to return to the village and become the Godaime Hokage."

"And if you lose?" She challenged and Kurama smirked.

"Then I will pay all of your debts up until this point and give you half a million ryo a year to fund your future gambling and vices." The others, including Jiraiya, all gaped at the thought of such a large sum of money.

"You don't have that kind of money kid, even with your parent's inheritance." She stated and a sinister smile curled the corners of Kurama's mouth as he held up a slightly bulging wallet.

"You're right, I don't possess that kind of money… but, I do posses a very special set of skills."

"Shizune!" Tsunade barked and the woman beside her eyes bugged as she began checking every pocket on her for the wallet she had been safeguarding.

"I'm sorry Tsunade-sama, it's gone!" Shizune answered in a panic glaring at Kurama who flipped the wallet between his fingers.

"Fine, to sweeten the pot, if you win you can have this." Tsunade snapped, pulling a necklace from inside her blouse. "But if you lose, then your shinobi career is over."

Even from the distance he was standing, Kurama could tell that the necklace was of incalculable value, made from a stone that was rare even in Makai. "Deal."

"Lady Tsunade, you can't really be serious, that belong to your Grandfather, Shodaime-sama!" Shizune gawked, hugging the pig in her arms tighter. "Besides, you said it was cursed and whoever wore it would die, do you hate this kid so much that you would give him something like that?"

"Tch, he isn't going to be able to land a hit on me so no worries, besides, only those who wish to be Hokage are the ones cursed."

"Actually, it's Kurama-kun's dream to become Hokage." Sakura piped up, eyeing the necklace dubiously.

"And we're going to help him achieve it." Sasuke added to the surprise of the group and Sakura readily agreed.

"Don't worry Sakura, some stupid necklace isn't going to do me in before my goal is realized." Kurama stated, getting ready for their fight, pushing back memories of a red pendant and a long dead bat yokai he dared call friend.

Tsunade held up one finger and for a moment Kurama thought maybe she possessed the spirit gun. Only for her to state she would only need one finger to beat him. Deciding it was her loss for underestimating him, Kurama began to lay his trap and charged. Sure enough, she used only one finger to fend him off, though it felt like a fist every time she touched him.

He had bruises forming long before his yoki had saturated the ground enough to pull off his final move. The slug Sannin touched the dirt path, turning the ground soft in an attempt to slow him down, but it only worked in his favor. Unsealing the water contained in his canteen, Kurama saturated the loosened ground by unleashed the torrent of water, finishing the final preparations.

However, Tsunade sensing something amiss, balled her fist and decked him so hard he was sent flying down the street. His right shoulder hit first and he went tumbling ass over tea kettle another few yards before his just skid to a stop on the path. He lay there for a moment, panting and dizzy, trying to see if the damage was enough to prevent him from getting up.

"Heh, giving up already? You weren't hardly a challenge, though I'll applaud you for making me resort to using a full hand." She taunted, dusting her hands as if she had touched something foul.

"Thank you." Kurama stated through gritted teeth and just as she was about to turn to leave, he halted her. "For letting... your guard down. Mokuton: Jubaku Eisō!"

Wood sprang from the ground twisting and ensnaring Tsunade in its thick trunk-like roots. She struggled, but wood imbued with yoki or chakra was like tempered steel and almost impossible to break free from. Limping and clutching at his ribs, Kurama walked the seemingly long distance to where Tsunade was bound. A rib had perforated one of his lungs and he would be lucky if his right shoulder was only dislocated instead for shattered as he suspected it was. Panting and coughing up flecks of blood, he took a moment to catch his breath and work up the strength to lift his fist.

"You.. are a fool for underestimating me." Kurama wheezed, balling his left hand and almost doubling over at the mind numbing pain the action caused. "One day, I will be Hokage... that I promise you."

His fist swung forward and halted inches from her face as his vision rapidly darkened. As he felt himself sinking, his fingers hooked on the necklace around her neck and he hit the ground with a smile.

It was his now and she was never getting it back.

* * *

oOo

An: Sorry this was such a long wait. Hopefully the extra long chapter makes up for it!

Until next time~


	13. The New Hokage

oOo

 **CHAPTER XIII**

 **(The New Hokage)**

 **(\\_/)**

 **=(^^)=**

 **\/**

* * *

oOo

A gentle, breeze rustled the annoying draperies on his straw hat. It was hot enough in Hi no Kuni without the stuffy cloaks and cloth covered Kasa. Sweat was rolling down the side of his neck and even the cooling breeze did nothing to stave the balmy evening air.

Sighing, he complained as much to his partner, who had forbade him from using chakra to cool himself. Even he was skeptical that Jiraiya of the Sannin would be able to sense them this far out, but he wouldn't go against Itachi. He trusted his partner's judgment, it had saved his blue tinged hide more than once and Jiraiya wasn't known as a Sage for his writing skills.

"How much further Itachi?"

"Less than a kilometer, you'll be able to see the town as soon as we clear the tree line." He stated in that infuriating monotone.

Sometimes Kisame wondered if anything would ruffle the little raven's feathers. Even the most tedious tasks or annoyances didn't earn a twitch from his passive face. For someone who killed his clan, more often than not, he went out of his way to not kill if he could avoid it. That's not to say that he didn't kill, but there was something that didn't sit right with the Uchiha about senseless killing on his part. There were times it almost seemed as if Itachi was punishing himself over something, as if he thought he deserved the torment he put himself through.

Itachi's personality wasn't what made him a good partner, but Kisame didn't mind that part. The only consolation was the fact that he seemed to have no problems letting Kisame kill whomever he wished. Not to say he was a mindless killer either, but sometimes it was too irresistible when the opponent was overly arrogant. Kisame loved shredding them down to size.

Sure enough, the crater town was visible as they neared the edge of the forest. It would have been visible much sooner but it was a small town that catered to the rich and the tallest building was hardly above tree level. Whistling lowly to himself, Kisame could appreciate the amount of money wasted on the frivolous things to satisfy the wealthy. Most notably the amount of debauchery at every corner.

It didn't take long for them to sneak into the town, there were several entrances and the guards were not inside, they had a stroke of luck when Itachi spotted Naruto and Jiraiya almost right off. Unfortunately, the two were accompanied by the Copycat Shinobi and the Jinchuuriki's two other teammates.

"Hey Itachi, is the brat supposed to look kinda… well, bishonen?" Kisame asked, gobsmacked at how little he resembled the description Itachi had given of the once blonde orphan.

"No, something has happened since last time I checked on him… perhaps it has something to do with the Kyuubi." He stated, a displeased frown tugging at the corners of his lips.

One thing Kisame knew was that Itachi was a stickler for detail and he didn't like being misinformed. The lack of information would only be a minor nuisance and he had never seen such things slow down or stop the Uchiha, who was a master at adapting to the situation. Quick on his feet, Itachi walked over to one of the call girls in front of a brothel and whispered something to her, causing her to blush and look him in the eyes. It was her mistake and she accepted a couple of coins in a half daze, before making her way past the group of Konoha shinobi as Itachi had likely controlled her to do.

"Oooh, good thinking, separating them like that." Kisame complemented as the two Sensei followed the woman with half distracted instructions to their students to find a place to stay for the night.

They followed the genin to the hotel and planned on waiting about thirty minutes before they would enter. That way the brats would be caught off guard, as they would be expecting their Sensei to returned. However, they were waylaid when the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki and the pink haired teammate left the hotel again. Stalking behind them, Kisame was forced to endure watching the sickeningly sweet date unfold. The boy ended up paying too much for their dinner, though not as bad as Kisame had thought he would have to and then they paused at a small gambling den to play a game of Janken Pon.

"Her reflexes are quite good, though she has hardly reached her full potential." Itachi stated, watching the two with mild interest as the girl scored in the top ten.

Kisame wasn't sure, but then again anyone could have potential at that age, Itachi was prime example of that. Shrugging, they followed the two back to the hotel and planned to ambush them shortly after they entered, so as to not draw too much attention. However, their luck seemed to have run out, because the jinchuuriki came crashing through the window of the third floor and was beat into the ground by an Oto-nin.

"Damn, that looks like it hurt." Kisame whistled in sympathy, peeking around their hiding spot.

"If this continues they are going to destroy the town."

"So? Maybe we can grab him in the confusion when that other guy kicks his ass."

Itachi frowned, glancing up at the starless sky and humming in agreement.

To their surprise, it wasn't the bone wielder who won. It was interesting to see that the brat had tapped into the Kyuubi's power, which meant he was progressing faster than they had anticipated. However, it was surprising to discover the kid had the Mokuton, that could prove problematic trying to capture him. Also something Itachi hadn't mentioned, though it was possible that the Jinchuuriki had only just discovered the power. Even Kisame had to concede that there weren't any Mokuton users around to teach him.

There was an explosion of black flames from the hotel and Kisame stared, transfixed on something he had only ever seen his partner produce.

"Was that Amaterasu?"

"No… it was stronger, come on we don't have time to investigate, let's grab the boy while he is tired."

When they stepped out to make their move, the brat darted past them with a warning to not linger. Kisame wasn't sure what to make of that and Itachi looked apprehensive whether they should just follow. However, the decision was made for them when Jiraiya and Kakashi returned, drawn in by the use of the Kyuubi's chakra. Cursing, Kisame followed his Uchiha partner and watched as they Konoha shinobi left for another hotel.

Their mission was going downhill quickly and it only got worse from there on out.

After finding out the Konoha team was making their way to Tanzaku, in search for Tsunade of all people, the two of them traveled through the night and rested in the early hours of the morning, sure in the knowledge that the genin would be too tired after to travel that night. This assumption later turned out to be correct, but the two of them didn't find out until after the fact. Kisame came up with the plan of finding Tsunade first, it was a logical plan, one he had thought out fairly well. So naturally when they were once again beaten to the punch, by Orochimaru no less, Kisame decided it was time to throw in the towel and try another tactic.

"We should contact leader, this is getting ridiculous, did you hear what Orochimaru was claiming that Jinchuuriki did to him? I hate to say it, but perhaps right now isn't the time, at least not without backup."

"I agree, Uzumaki-kun is too closely watched at the moment and there are too many high profile shinobi around for us to obtain him at this juncture. He has progressed much further recently than we had anticipated and I'm leery our skills are no longer a proper match to take him down. Not to mention our presence has likely not gone unnoticed, so if you keep guard, I will report our findings to Leader and gather further instruction."

And just like that, they were called back to base, their closest interaction with the boy was a friendly warning for their well being.

Life was weird sometimes.

"Hey Itachi, is there other Uchiha still alive?"

"Hn."

Well, that was great, apparently the Uchiha little raven had used up his word quota for the day… it was going to be a long trip back to the base. At least he could regulate his body temperature once again and the balmy heat couldn't touch him, but still...

"...Are we there yet?"

",,," Nothing.

Oh well, he'd have to try harder next time… A predatory grin split his face as an idea struck him.

Whistling off key it was, his teeth make such annoying sounds when he tried~

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oOo

Sasuke stared at the deceptively young face of the newest Hokage and tried not to allow curiosity show on his face as he glanced at the other people in the room. There was the now retired Sandaime Hokage, stood just behind the Godaime as her new personal advisor and all of the proctors from the chunin exams. There were several official looking scrolls stacked on her desk and Sasuke wondered if this would be the first mission they would be accepting from the Godaime Hokage… he almost didn't dare hope it was what he was what he thought it might be...

"Nara Shikamaru, please step forward." Tsunade instructed, taking the first scroll and dipping her brush into the ink, signing her name and title, before it got the Hokage seal. "As I was not present to witness this previous chunin exam, I have sat with the proctors and my advisor Sarutobi-Sensei and listened in depth on their opinions of your performance during the testing. The Sandaime has had great praise for your match and as such I hope you strive to achieve a level of excellence worthy of that headband. Congratulations, I hereby promote you to the rank of chunin."

Shikamaru accepted the scroll, stunned and slightly bemused as he fell back in line.

"Rock Lee, please step forward."

She reiterated pretty much the same thing that she had to Shikamaru, though a little more personalised and how she was impressed that he had made it so far without a fully functioning chakra network. There were tears of joy and promises that he would not let her down, or he would do some obscurely impossible task if he failed. He accepted the scroll containing his chunin vest and updated ID and fell back in line.

"You two are dismissed, Sasuke and Naruto, please remain behind."

Sasuke's heart rate picked up and it was challenging to resist turning to see if Kurama was as nervous as he was. It took a moment, as most of the proctors with the exception of Anko, Morino Ibiki, Shiranui Genma and the Sandaime, to clear out, though it seemed like ages to the Uchiha heir, it only took moments. Once the room was cleared, Tsunade flashed through several signs and the room darkened as a barrier of some kind was erected.

From the shadows came a pale face garbed in a white cloak… no, not a pale face, they were wearing a mask, it was an Anbu. This Anbu stood beside the Godaime, silent as death and easy enough to overlook despite his attire. Their silver hair blended in so well with the suite, if Sasuke hadn't known he was there, he would have thought they were part of the wall. Likely there was some kind of cloaking jutsu involved to encourage the optical nerves to not perceive the person and he struggled not to activate his sharingan in order to see if he was right.

"Officially I am giving you two the rank of chunin. Considering your performance in the exams and what you did for the village during the invasion, not to mention the fact you managed to convince me to return to the village, I wish I could give you a higher rank." She stated, stunning the two newly minted chunin and just as quickly Sasuke had a bad feeling about why that Anbu had appeared. "Unfortunately, I can only award you this promotion to the next stage of your career in public light. However, I want to offer you boys an opportunity for an unofficial promotion… off the books."

Sasuke was floored at the implications and couldn't help the not-so-small swell of pride that belied his excitement at advancing. This time, he did chance a look at Kurama, conveying that he wanted to know more about this and was pleased to see that his teammate seemed intrigued by the proposition as well.

"If you are implying what I think you are, I just have one question." Kurama stated, waiting for the go ahead to speak freely. "What of our other teammate, Sakura? I don't wish to leave her behind and I would like for us to, officially that is, remain a team."

Nodding when the Godaime looked to him to confirm that he felt the same, she chuckled and steepled her fingers in front of her to rest her chin on. "It is admiral of you to wish to include her. I will admit she showed promise in the exams, as noted by Sensei, but not only did she not meet the necessary requirements to be promoted, I have already extended an invitation to her for another learning opportunity and she has accepted."

It took him a moment to figure out what she meant, but once he did, Sasuke was amazed at the prospect of Sakura becoming an apprentice to Tsunade. She deserved to have her strengths noticed and finally get a teacher who can help her refine her specialty taijutsu. It seemed they were being noticed for their own skills as well and Sasuke was surprised to discover he was alright with that, even if it wasn't public recognition.

"I need an answer before you leave this room, just know, if you decline, this offer will not be presented again and until you make Jonin you will be on your own in acquiring knowledge you seek to improve yourself unless you can convince someone to take you on as an apprentice like Naruto here." She said more for Sasuke's benefit than Kurama's. "If you accept, you will not only have the members of your team to learn from or teach, but a certain… _freedom_ that is lacking in when in the public's eye."

Anko snorted at the Hokage's loose terminology. "Yeah, basically if you don't get caught, then it ain't "illegal" and if they never find the body they ain't "dead"." She chuckled to herself even as Ibiki thumped her on the back of the head in exasperation at her interruption.

"While I can't confirm that statement, as Hokage I do everything by the book, but I don't have time to hunt down every little rumor that spreads, that is something you will have to discover on your own should you choose this path in your career." She concluded, giving them both a moment to think it over.

It was no secret that Torture and Interrogation ran neck and neck with Anbu, after all, regular force shinobi hardly ever brought in an enemy, let alone one that was alive. To have it confirmed was enough for Sasuke's curiosity to bubble to the point of overflowing. Itachi had been Anbu and there were mixed thoughts about that to Sasuke.

His brother changed after joining the secretive branch of the shinobi forces, ignoring him more and becoming distant from his own family. It was also about the time Itachi's skills skyrocketed and though his brother had been gifted before, Anbu had refined whatever natural talent he possessed. His brother was also good at hiding things and the only reason he knew his brother was in Anbu, was because the night of the massacre, he had been wearing the standard Anbu attire Neko mask and all.

Now that he thought back on it, there were several things about that night that didn't add up and this would be the perfect opportunity to garner those skills and resources to poke the proverbial sleeping bear. One thing that stood out that night, though he had forgotten until recently, was the fact his brother had been crying just before he used the Tsukuyomi on him. It was odd to think of his brother with such despair on his face and his mind had subconsciously filed that oddity way during the traumatic experience... Not to mention the fact, that no matter how skilled he was, there was no way for Itachi to have killed every Uchiha except for him in one night and not attract attention before it was over.

Plus that weird message he had left him with… something about the Naka Shrine, but he just couldn't remember. If there was ever a good opportunity to leave the village for an extended period of time and not be noticed… Anbu was the way to go and it would be the only way for him to visit his family's shrine.

However, there was just one thing he was not willing to do in order to join and he turned to Kurama to gauge his reaction. What he saw, was a pensively, serious frown on his friends face and twinkle of mischief in his eyes. Maybe him having free rein to do what he wished, with penalty only being applied if he got caught, wasn't such a grand idea… It was no small measure of kinship he felt when Kurama finally turned to give him a questioning stare, clearly wanting his opinion on the matter before he decided anything.

Smirking, Sasuke mentally kissed what little sanity he had left good by. He was nuts for wanting this and Kurama seemed just as bent for wanting the same thing. If Sasuke didn't know better, he would say Kurama was glowing with nefarious excitement. If the way the villagers treated him hadn't turned him into a monster, this surely would and the Uchiha heir couldn't help but be thankful that it wasn't directed at him… hopefully.

"I accept Hokage-sama." Kurama stated boldly and she leveled her gaze on Sasuke.

"I too accept Hokage-sama." It took what little pride he had to not twitch at using the formality and honorific, but he couldn't deny her the proper title in such a formal affair. After all, it could be seen as not only disrespectful, but grounds to prove he wasn't loyal.

"Very well, step forward please." She ordered, standing from her desk and removing an inkwell, this time red and an already red stained brush.

Preparing the ink, Tsunade didn't have to order for a chair be set in front of her desk, the Anbu in the white cloak proceeded to do so without being told. She motioned to the chair and Sasuke took it upon himself to sit first. Removing his shirt when instructed, he waited patiently while she painted delicate lines up his left arm, upon his forehead and down his neck, connecting the two. She placed one hand on his left shoulder and her pointer finger on his forehead.

"You do not sign a contract when joining the shadows, instead, you are the contract. This seal marks you as one of my loyal apparitions, doing my bidding without question or hesitation. By accepting your body as a contract, you swear to not only carry out my orders to the best of your ability, even upon pain of death, but to never divulge information to anyone but the proper chain of command, that being myself or your captain.

Outside of Konoha's walls as Neko, you are no longer Uchiha Sasuke, you are no longer a person or a shinobi of Konoha, you are Neko and nothing more. You are to complete your tasks from the shadows and leave nothing behind to implicate that there were more than shadows there as witness. You will refrain from using noticeably identifying fighting styles, which for you the sharingan will aid you in learning various styles to add to your repertoire.

From here on out, you take up your brother's mask and for an Uchiha become Neko once more. It is my hope that you can achieve your goal and bring honor to yourself in bringing the man who murdered your clan to justice." Sasuke thought it was odd how she worded it, but there was a general vagueness to the whole situation so he chalked it up to the mystery that was Anbu.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Sasuke wasn't sure what happened after that, just pain and a guttural release of air as the seal formed into a spiral on his left arm.

* * *

Thank you for reading and Happy Holidays! Until next time~


	14. Old Dog

oOo

 **CHAPTER XIV**

 **(Old Dog)**

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oOo

Of all things Kakashi had expected when he first took on a genin team, being in a long term relationship wasn't one of them. Any relationship was a bit of a outlandish stretch, something he not only hadn't considered since Rin's death, but had actively avoided. Even coming out of retirement wasn't unexpected, considering who his students were.

Botan was a special kind of woman. She was smart when she put her mind to it and she could give Gai a run for his jumpsuit when the situation called for it. He was loathed to admit it, but his heart had been consumed by the mystery that was the self proclaimed shinigami. He fingered the edge of his mask, toying with the few bristles of beard he could actually grow. Just like his father before him, his Hatake heritage prevented him from having large amount of body hair.

Kurama, as Naruto was fairly well known as, when he didn't don his weasel mask, had an interesting relationship with Botan as well. They often times vanished during the night, or sometimes for days on end, looking for something. If Kakashi didn't know better, he would say she was having an affair… though a light bit of stalking and the lack of intimate musk lingering on either one of them proved that they weren't.

Well, at least not any scents that wasn't supposed to be there, Kurama had after all taken advantage of the clan restoration act that allowed him to have multiple wives, though none of them were married yet, Kakashi could safely bet it would happen soon. Hinata and Sakura, in that order, were the first to join him after they became chuunin two years after Kurama and Sasuke had. In fact, all the rookie nine and Gai's team were chuunin now, the first large batch of genin graduates to not only graduate the academy together, but to reach chuunin about the same time.

It hadn't been since Kakashi own generation that such a promising and strong group of shinobi had joined the active duty forces. Sure there was the occasional one who cropped up that was powerful in their own right. Anko, Tenzo and Itachi just to name a few.

Thinking of Itachi led him to thoughts of his wayward student, the one hell bent on finding his brother and killing him. Sasuke, Kurama and Sakura had all made leaps and bounds as far as maturing into great shinobi, they might even surpass the Sannin one day, but Sasuke was still bound and determined to go after his brother. The only thing holding him back at this point was Kurama and it who was only encouraging the young Uchiha prodigy to dig up clues about the night of the massacre to better have an idea on how to take his brother down. Kakashi had done some digging on his own, but just as it had years before, rummaging through the Uchiha compound for clues was useless.

Kurama kissed a sleeping Hinata on the forehead, then gave Sakura long deep kiss, who had just returning from the evening shift, before slipping out of his window. He shimmied around, looking for followers, not that he would spot Kakashi and proceeded to head in the direction of the Uchiha compound. Sasuke met him at the gates and the two conversed for a moment, before ducking behind to gates to slip into their gear before taking off.

The two of them had been up to something recently and call it his paranoia, but he was worried that Sasuke was going down the same path Itachi had. So naturally that light bit of stalking had turned into full blown creeper mode, though Kakashi tried to avoid the more intimate moments neither boy seemed to partake in recently. They were growing up so quick and it made Kakashi feel old, even if he wasn't quite thirty yet!

Not even blinking when he tracked the two out of the village, Kakashi made quick work of keeping on their tale. The two had learned a lot over the past two years, but he was a seasoned veteran and though it would take a lot to teach this old dog new tricks, the tricks he did know were refined to a sharp edge. He had to give them credit, they laid many false trails and covered their tracks well, but the Jonin, turned Anbu, turned Jonin again, turned Anbu again wouldn't be fooled by mere diversions.

That… and he was the one who taught them those tricks.

Glancing at the surrounding rocky forest, Kakashi had to admit he had never been somewhere like this before. There was a sound of rushing water nearby, though further than eyes sight and if Kakashi was a betting man, he would put his money on that being the Naka River. Only once had the Silver haired jonin heard it mentioned, but it was beginning to look as if his two cute little students were headed for the Uchiha's secret meeting place at the Naka Shrine. If the subject of the shrine had come up after Obito's death, he might have investigated the rumors sooner, but now he was regretting having not followed through with his minor curiosity in the past. Maybe he could have prevented what happened with the Uchiha? Snooped around enough to discover what had drove Itachi to murder his clan.

Perhaps, Kakashi thought morbidly, there was a reason Itachi took out the clan and maybe they deserved it… No, there was no way all the Uchiha deserved to die, there were children younger than Sasuke, there had to be more to it than that. Whatever the case may be, it was clear Sasuke and Kurama were bound and determined to see if the shrine held some hidden secret to defeating Itachi… who knows, there very well could be.

The shrine was a little underwhelming once he was standing in front of it. Not that he often let his imagination run wild, he was more realistic than that, but the unkempt shrine was no different than any other shrine before it, except someone, probably several someones, had painstakingly painted the Uchiha symbol all over the place. As they rounded the top of the stairs, Sasuke seemed impressed by the place and Kurama seemed to look a bit… lost. It was as if Kurama was somewhere else and even Sasuke picked up on it, having gotten better about reading Kurama's body language over the last couple of years. It was a lot harder to read someone when their most telling features were covered.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked, doing a cursory scan for enemies he might have missed on the way in.

"This used to be Genkai's temple, she left it in the care of Yukina and by extension Kuwabara. It was also one of my final homes before my first true death. It's amazing it is still here, though the barrier protecting it is all but gone now." Kurama said, running his hand over a seal carved into the main building of the shrine.

"It still amazes me how old you are… if it wasn't for Botan, Jiraiya, my own strange dreams and personality shift, I might not have believed you as easily as I had." Sasuke murmured and Kakashi was tempted to shout out, demanding to know what they were talking about. What did Botan have to do with any of this and how was Jiraiya involved?

"I still think Tsunade-sama still doesn't believe it and Sakura is in denial, which was so much like Genkai. If it wasn't relevant to her needs, then it didn't exist and you couldn't make her believe otherwise." Kurama chuckled and Kakashi felt a pang of hurt for being left out of the loop.

"Why haven't we told Sensei again?" Sasuke asked and the Silver haired jonin's pride in his students sprang up again, glad he hadn't been completely forgotten.

"Because Botan is afraid he won't like her anymore, it's the first relationship she's had since her and I-"

Kakashi mentally cursed, some rock tumbled off in the distance, nothing he could have controlled and it certainly didn't give him away, but it halted anymore conversation

"Come on, we don't have all night and if we get caught…" Kurama warned, earning a nod of agreement from Sasuke as the two of the slinked into the building.

Kakashi waited a few minutes before he too followed, sure in the knowledge that they wouldn't spot him. His students didn't converse anymore as they searched the building and the two of them were about to give up when one of Naruto's clones spotted something. He motioned Sasuke over and the two of them studied something on the floor. After bending down and feeling around a couple of the mats, Sasuke stopped counting.

"Seven." He murmured as he stopped on one of the tatami mats, activating his sharingan, something must have given under his fingers as the mat slid away revealing a secret passage.

It was a straight shot to the secret room, if Kakashi was going against anyone else, he might have chanced sneaking in behind them… but he had trained them, after all and he knew one or both of them wouldn't miss such a quick move.

The two of them were in there for a while and with his enhanced hearing he could just pick out the soft strokes of a brush and low murmuring between the two, but nothing he could decipher. When they exited the secret meeting room and closed the entrance back, Kakashi waited patiently for them to leave before making his way over to the mat. Removing the patch he kept on behind his mask, the silver haired jonin peered down at the area Sasuke had touched. He wouldn't have spotted it without his sharingan, but there was a pattern in the mat that indicated a couple areas to push and in what order. Under the mat, he could feel as each button was pressed and as quietly as before, the slide away.

Once again, Kakashi was underwhelmed. As far as secret lairs went, this was rather boring and traditional, even Orochimaru's laboratory was more intimidating at first glance… and a nightmare if you looked a little closer. However, the Uchiha secret meeting place was nothing more than a overly furnished office, packed with too many seats. The only thing that really stood out was the stone in the back, the seals on the candles lighting it eerily in the dark hall. Stepping closer, Kakashi read it over once, confused as the basic Uchiha history etched onto it, before he opening his sharingan and scanned it again.

What he discovered was alarming to say the least and his hand subconsciously rose to his lower eyelid. Detailed on the stone was the circumstances to unlocking the mangekyo sharingan.

You had to kill someone you loved.

Was it possible? Did he perhaps have the mangekyo sharingan?

There was only two other people he knew of in the Uchiha that had the mangekyo sharingan. Shisui, who was murdered by Itachi and Itachi…

If Shisui was so important to Itachi, which Kakashi knew he was, they both had been under his command at one point or another, then was it possible that Itachi really had killed him? Kakashi hadn't believed the rumors at first, at least, not unless after the massacre. After that point everyone just assumed he had and left it at that. However, there was never a body and Itachi seemed truly angry when someone implied that he might have killed his best friend.

However, Shisui didn't get his mangekyo from killing a loved one, he got it from watching his mother die of illness.

Was it possible that someone in the Uchiha had killed Shisui and forced Itachi to watch? Was that why he snapped? Had Fugaku orchestrated the whole thing?

No, he wasn't going to jump to conclusions. If things hadn't added up before, then they were starting to now and Kakashi wanted all the facts before he stuck his neck out. There was more than just his students involved with this, he was sure of that much and whatever was going on could go higher in the ranks than a troubled teen who snapped under pressure. Kakashi didn't know much about what Itachi, or Shisui had been up to during that time, but there was one person whose name seemed to crop up when something dirty got swept under the rug.

Danzo.

* * *

oOo

Grinning to herself, Anko stealthily slid into the barstool next to weasel, pressing her… assets, snuggly into his arm as she slid her own across his shoulders. Well, he was called Kurama off duty and his silver hair was just a right fun mess to play with. Her fingers snaked into the stands of hair at the crook of his neck, she let out a low, breathy groan that sounded almost seductive and hungry at the same time. "What'cha eat'in there handsome?" She purred and he nearly dropped his chopsticks when he startled, floundering with them mid air before they were caught in a death grip.

"A-Anko-san. What a surprise to see you." He stammered, gently trying to pry off her wandering fingers from where they had relocated to his ears. "As much as I enjoy a good fondling, I am in fact, a little more conservative than you seem to think."

Cackling, she flopped gracelessly into her seat, she demanded a bowl of salt pork ramen from the waitress, Ayame and held up a scroll. "Well sugar plum, we have a mission, so you might want to get real cosy with me quick and in a hurry, because we're now officially married." She gloated cackling again at his panicked snatch for the scroll.

He nearly cut himself trying to unroll it fast enough to find out what the mission was and after a few minutes, he sighed and rolled up the scroll. It was a marriage certificate drawn in crayon, quite artfully if she did say so herself. "You're a terrible person, Anko-san, you know very well what Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan would have done to me had they not been first in line for marriage proposals."

"Awe, but you're ears do this cute little twitchy thing when you're panicking!" She pouted, trying to subtly grope his tail, but it had been moved just when her fingers had it in her grasp. "You're too stiff Kurama, you need a woman to help you work out those… kinks."

"I know for a fact that you're just teasing me, do we really have a mission, or are you just here to try and seduce me?" Exasperated that he wasn't playing along with her games today, she pulled the real scroll out and handed it to his with a dramatic groan of exasperation.

"When was the last time you got a mission, you're never this uptight." She complained, getting serious as he finally read over the mission scroll. "Gear up, we leave in an hour, you teammates for the mission have already been informed."

"So we've found him? No wonder you're in such a good mood." He said, rolling this scroll up and tucking it in his flak jacket.

"We think so, so get a move on it, I don't want to miss this window of opportunity." With that, she stood and patted him on the back. "Sooner we get this done, the sooner I can show you what seducing really looks like."

With that, she left, but not without getting a good grope of his tail. His resounding yelp brought the grin back to her face as she vanished with a pop and a small poof of smoke.

How old was legal again? Meh… close enough, she'd ended the lives of boys younger than him and he already had two potential wives, she wasn't going to let the last couple spots fill up without one of them being hers.

That tail and those ears were all hers, hehehehe.

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Okay, I didn't have time to go over this and look for mistakes, so you're getting the as-is version, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Until next time~


	15. The Forgotten Adversary

oOo

 **Chapter XV**

 **(The Forgotten Adversary)**

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oOo

There might have been insecure jealousies had Sakura still had an infatuation with Sasuke, but Sakura found herself content to watch her teammate stumble around romance awkwardly with amusement. The Uzumaki girl from the chunin exams and the young ambassador for the Mizukage were confident and had minds of their own, not tolerating Sasuke's introvertedness and dragging him way out of his comfort zone. Karin wasn't like Naruto, she was much more hotheaded and more than once Sakura had over heard Tsunade and Shizune comparing her to a Red Hot Habanero. Sakura got the feeling they were talking about Naruto's mom and not some hot pepper, but it was neither here nor there.

On the flipside was Haku, apparently Terumi Mei had overthrown the previous Mizukage, who claimed to have been controlled, before his death. The young ice user and her Sensei were delegating communications to the Hokage for trade and peace treaties. Whenever she was in town, her and Sasuke were suspiciously in close proximity and occasionally Kurama was seen dining with them, though platonically. She had been so sure Haku and Kurama would have ended up together, but she and Sasuke seemed to click. Sakura wouldn't have minded Haku's company, but it warmed her heart that the ice user had chiseled the ice from around Sasuke's heart a little.

Shaking that from her head, she listened as Ino listed off their tasks for the day and only spaced off to her own love interest when her friend came to a part that she already knew. Hinata was missing from their rounds of the hospital that day, having gotten a collaborative mission with an Anbu team. Though Tsunade had taken on three students, Ino, Hinata and Sakura respectively, there was still a shortage of medics in the village. The regular force medics weren't as quick to learn as Tsunade's selected students and in three years, though the medic force had doubled in size, it was still a far cry from the trained medic force they needed.

Hence why Hinata and her old teammates were selected to be the present for this Anbu mission. Sakura could only imagine what kind of mission it was if they were planning on needing a well train medic even before the mission even started. Whatever it was, it was big and Kurama had been more tight lipped than usual when telling her he had a mission.

Accepting the patient forms from the secretary, Sakura allowed herself to be pulled into the systematic chaos that was the trauma center. Hours pass by with hardly any notice, her stomach gave a protest at some point and she crunched an apple in between one surgery and the next. Before she knew it, her shift was ending and for the life of her she couldn't figure out where the time went. As stiff as she was from being bent over the operating table, she wasn't really tired and wanted to unwind with a warm meal when Botan came trotting up to her.

"Sakura-chan, I'm so relieve I caught you before you left!" She chirped in a friendly, but urgent and frazzled tone. "We've got a mission and we need to leave as soon as possible." She panted, trying to catch her breath and get out what needed to be said at the same time.

"Really? What's the urgency?" Sakura asked, even as she began quickly following the bluenette toward Kurama's apartment to pick up her travel pack… when was the last time she had been home?

"Well, team eight and the Anbu team they were traveling with have run into a bit of trouble. Something they're not quite prepared to deal with and I've requested to travel with a shinobi in order to assist with the mission." Botan had rambled some more than that, but that was the jist of what Sakura picked up in her flurry of packing.

Accepting the scroll from Tsunade for the official mission part of the outing, Sakura scanned it and blinked at the fact Botan was in charge for this mission, but that wasn't what bothered her about the woman. It was the fact she vanished for sometimes months since coming into their lives and she still wasn't quite sure how Kurama knew her. She hadn't been part of his life during the academy, of that Sakura could be sure, but they acted as if they had known each other for a long time. If it wasn't for the fact that their Sensei was dating her and that the Hokage, her advisor Sandaime-sama and Jiraiya seemed to have complete faith in her, Sakura would think the woman was a spy.

Kurama had talked about many things over the years, but anything surrounding the mystery of his transformation in Wave country or Botan seemed to be brushed off or diverted. A traitorous part of Sakura whispered that this could be her chance to find out and didn't question the mission parameters. About to hop out of her window, Sakura paused when a thought occurred to her that Botan wouldn't be able to keep up, as far as she knew, the woman was a civilian and she would have to carry her.

Turning around, Sakura was surprised to see Botan holding an ore, looking perplexed. "What are you waiting for?" She blinked innocently as Sakura and tilted her head.

"Where-" Mentally shrugging, Sakura decided she didn't want to know. "Never mind, if this mission is such a hurry, I should probably carry you so we get there quicker."

Giggling, Botan made a shooing motion with her free hand. "Just go, I'll be able to keep up, no worries."

Dubious, Sakura decided it wouldn't take very long for Botan to discover that a civilian running pace wasn't going to be fast enough to keep up with a shinobi and so she took off. Hopping roof tops and a flicker here or there of movement had her to the edge of the forest in short order. She stopped, about to turn back to retrieve Botan when a flurry of pink fabric zipped past her, almost giving her whiplash when she twisted back around to see what had passed her. Uphead, she watched and the pink blur made a wide loop over a branch of a tree, only to settle hovering in the air space between two branches Sakura would have leapt onto next had she not stopped.

"Is something the matter?" Botan asked with a devious giggled behind her hand hidden in her kimono sleeve.

"How-" Sakura started and it took far more brain power for her to finish the question that she cared to admit. "How are you doing that!"

"Oh?" Botan looked down at the ore she was sitting on as if she hadn't thought it strange. "Okay, small pranks aside, I guess the easiest way of explaining it is, that everyone in my line of work has the ability to fly, if that is what you mean?" She asked with a grin and held out a hand. "I know you're tired from your shift, would you like a ride?"

Confused at the offer, Sakura ignored the hand and poked the flat paddle tentatively to make sure it wasn't an illusion. "I guess?"

"Great! We can travel much faster this way, not having to go around mountains and all that tedious stuff." Botan cheered, snatching Sakura up and taking off at a breakneck pace.

It took every bit of control Sakura had to stick herself to the ore with chakra and not wrap her arms around Botan and strangle the woman as they took to the sky. Embarrassingly, there was more than one occasion Sakura shrieked in fear when the bluenette got a little too close to crashing for comfort. It didn't cut the trip down by much, especially if Sakura had been running full out, maybe a couple hours at most, but it did conserve her energy which hadn't been at peak condition before they left. They landed a good couple of miles from the target area and Sakura had to orientate herself for a moment before she finally figured out where they were.

"We're in rice country? What could possibly be here that would cause so much trouble?" Sakura wondered aloud and Botan fidgeted with some kind of compact mirror a moment before taking off in a seemingly random direction.

"I don't know what the shinobi teams came here for, but my boss got word that there was threat in the area that could prove problematic to team eight's mission, which considering what that was, there is a high chance they are in serious danger." Botan explained without taking her eyes off her compat, showing a side of herself Sakura didn't know she possessed.

There was commotion up ahead and the two of them used a couple of trees as cover as and explosion shook the ground. The wave of air displacement sent sticks and pebbles hurling at them, causing them to have to shield themselves further with their arms.

"Oh my, I hope everyone is okay, this is bad, the reiki levels are off the charts." Botan fretted, pushing on one of the eyeshadows and starting off in the same direction again. "Be alert, we're almost there." She warned.

Whatever that compact was, sure enough a deep tunnel became visible and several yards down to the right there was signs of a collapse, indicating where the explosions had originated. Further into the tunnel there were sounds of steel clashing with steel and shouts of rage or pain. Taking a cautious look into the entrance, there was nothing to indicate an enemy had linger behind after whoever was down there had forced their way in. The splintered door lay on the floor and Botan had to do some quick hopping to make it over the larger chunks. Sakura made it in one bound and had to wonder how a woman who could fly, couldn't leap over a simple door. Deciding to play it safe and treat the bluenette like a civilian, Sakura took point and began navigating the area ahead with direction from Botan if they came to a fork in the pathway.

The sound of clashing metal amplified as they neared what appeared to be a large research facility and Sakura's eyes followed the quick movements of Anbu fighting off weird monsters with grey skin. A flash of blonde gave her already pumping heart a jump, even in standard Anbu gear and a weasel mask, she would know that blond head anywhere.

Something gave a low growl and another explosion caused the hidden base to shake and loosen stone. Shielding herself and keeping an eye out for Botan, she squinted into the low lit room to insure that everyone else was alright. One of the Anbu was stabbed in the chaos and Sakura rushed into the fray, delivering a chakra powered punch to the maw of whatever hellspawn had speared the purple haired Anbu. Crouching down beside the Anbu, she made a subconscious diagnostic that the stab wound had nicked the liver and severed a patch of intestines. It wasn't immediately life threatening, though it could be if left untreated for an extended period of time.

Hands illuminated by her healing chakra, she went to work patching up the Anbu even as they ordered the others to track down whatever was causing the explosions and cave-ins. At least that's what she assumed they we saying with the silent stares and weird twitches. Working quickly, but efficiently, Sakura had the wound closed and patched up well enough that the Anbu could return to the fight. Wasting no time, the Anbu forced herself to her feet without a word, tilted her head in thanks and vanished into the shadows.

Sighing and dusting her knees off, Sakura stood and made her way to where she could hear more fighting. Only to pause upon realizing something was missing…

Botan!

Scanning the surrounding area, she didn't spot anything that would clue the pinkette to where she had gone, but if Sakura was a betting woman, she would say no where good. Dashing down the rows and rows of equipment and body parts, she searched frantically for the bluenette to no avail. Just about to circle back and insure that she hadn't decided to join the fight, a draft caught her attention and she turn on the spot, looking where the cooled air could be coming from.

Squinting, Sakura isolated the draft from a wall in the opposite direction of the fighting and she ran her fingers around the cracks in an attempt to find a hidden entrance. When that didn't work, she began pushing on stones that appeared to lack mortar or seemed loose. Growling in frustration when that proved futile, she gave the wall a harsh kick in agitation, turning around to storm off in a huff. The sound of stone crumbling and clattering to the floor made her pause. Incredulously her eyebrow twitched at the destroyed portion of wall, it revealed a hidden tunnel and only further reiterated that she needed to get her temper under control. If it wasn't for the fact Kurama could regrow their apartment door, then they would have been kicked out long ago due to her excessive strength.

Deciding to not look a gift horse in the mouth, or berate herself for not having thought of destroying the wall to begin with, she move quickly into the passageway. However, no sooner was she clear of the opening did the ceiling crumble and close the tunnel off behind her. It was just her luck that she would be trapped and she could only hope that there was more than one way out of this facility than the entrance.

The torches had been lit recently as she navigated her way down the passageway, which meant someone had been down here recently. However, whether or not it was Botan remained to be seen. Naturally, just to make her life harder, the tunnel split and both sides had burning torches. Either someone had deliberately lit them to throw off pursuers, or there was more than one person down here. Making two clones, Sakura had to thank weekly training sessions with Kurenai-Sensei and Kurama-kun for the extra skills she had picked up. Even though she couldn't spam a battlefield with them or use them to spar with herself as she had seen Naruto do, she could manage a couple short lived ones that could investigate things she didn't dare do herself or study to gain the extra knowledge when she did the practical work herself.

Much more than that and she would be a drooling mass on the floor from chakra exhaustion. The only consolation to that was, Sasuke wasn't much better and though he could manage more clones than her, sturdier ones at that, if he made too many, he would end up just as depleted as her. One of the clones popped and distracted her from her inner musings. The left tunnel was clearly trapped and a dead end, so she took off at a breakneck pace down the right passageway when her other clone popped to let her know there was an exit up ahead.

No sooner had she cleared the exit into the surrounding forest did she spot someone retreating. It was a bit of a mad dash to catch up to them, whoever they were, they weren't the first ones to have stumbled through this way and Sakura was hard pressed to close the lead they had on her. During her mad dash, she tripped over something and senbon came hurling toward her, she deflected the ones she could, dodging the rest by twisting her body unnaturally mid air. Landing, she stopped half a breath to note she had stumbled into a trap and ascertain that she hadn't been hit by the senbon before taking off again.

More careful than before, Sakura noted that whomever was ahead of her, the two parties weren't allies as signs of battle startled to show on the terrain. Sure enough, once she reached an unnatural clearing, there was a dark haired boy and a silver haired boy fighting. Botan sat on the ground, gagged and bound and looking mad enough to glare holes in the rope. Watching the fight between the two, Sakura noted one of them was wearing Anbu uniform and the other was a Konoha genin last she checked. However, the silver haired teen wasn't wearing the Konoha headband and instead sported one with a music note on it.

Watching for a moment, the dark haired Anbu summoned ink to life, though one of his arms was hanging limp at his side and seemed worse off for wear. The silver haired boy, Kabuto she thought his name might have been, danced around the ink constructs with a frown and managed to get close to the Anbu member. Sakura watched and a simple glancing blow severed use of the boy's left leg and he dropped like a marionette cut from it's strings.

Botan looked worried that the Anbu member had been injured and when Kabuto started to aim another blow at his downed opponent, she tried to scoot close enough to interfere. It was at least partly clear that Kabuto wasn't what he appeared to be and she had to do something fast. Wrapping her arms around the trunk of the tree she was hiding behind, Sakura pulled it from it's roots and gave it a mighty swing in an attempt to knock Kabuto away from the Anbu member before he could do anymore damage. There was a blow to the Anbu's head that broke his mask, one that Sakura was a fraction too slow to stop and with vicious satisfaction she watched as Kabuto was smacked a hundred yards away from them.

"CHA!" She snarled like a madwoman as he smashed through several trees before coming to a stop with a sickening crunch. "Back the hell off!"

Composing herself, she untied Botan quickly, pausing only long enough to find out that the Anbu member was in fact trying to help her. After Botan was set free, she turned to the Anbu member and began to assess his injuries. The ones to his arm and leg were pretty straightforward, whoever Kabuto was, he was a master in the iryo-jutsu and had skillfully severed the tendons in the Anbu's limbs. This was a fairly in depth process to reverse, even for Sakura who had studied under Tsunade, but not impossible with a little time and a boost from chakra pills.

However, the real problem lay in the last blow to the head. Kabuto had to know what he was doing when he punched him, because the damage was intense. If he had contact with the boy she was treating anylonger than he had, he would be dead. As it was his brain was hemorrhaging and his vitals were dropping rapidly. Not having time to spare, she quickly glanced in the direction of Kabuto, but the boy had somehow vanished and was nowhere to be seen, so instead she motioned for Botan to assist her in preparing the Anbu for field surgery.

Injecting him with just enough sedative to keep him from thrashing, she instructed Botan to hold him down as best as she could. The first thing she had to do was relieve the pressure that was mounting in the boy's head and began boring a hole in his skull with a sterile scalpel and chakra. Once the wound began to ooze from release of pressure, she placed a wad of gauze to catch the flow and keep anything from getting into the wound before she funneled her chakra into the damaged tissue of his brain.

Time seemed to fade away as she worked, there was a subconscious awareness that told her the fighting was still going on around her, but it too was muted while she operated. When she finally got the bleeding to stop and the swelling in his brain to safe levels, she did a quick patch of his tendons and deemed him safe enough to travel.

"Is he going to be alright? You've been going at this for quite a while." Botan asked softly, though she was looking nervously at the compact and the direction they had come from earlier.

"He should pull through, but I'm not sure if he will ever fully heal, he's going to be deaf in one ear at beast, but it shouldn't affect his shinobi career… unless there was trauma to the brain that I couldn't foresee." She hesitated to add. Give her broken bones and torn flesh and she could work miracles, but the brain was far more delicate than a severed tendon or two. "The best thing we can do for him is get him to Tsunade-shishou as soon as possible, she has more experience than I do."

"I'm sure you've done all that could be done for him, he was in really bad shape from what I can see." Botan assured her. "However, I need to get to Kurama as soon as possible, are you still up for fighting?"

Biting her thumb, Sakura summoned a small slug to keep an eye on the Anbu before and continue flooding him with healing chakra. "I'll be fine, let's go." Popping a soldier pill, she cursed her low reserves and began leading Botan back to the hidden base. They had to circle around to the front entrance again and by the time they had gotten there, the fighting had gotten suspiciously quiet.

She knew the probability that everything was alright was slim, but the team in there were Anbu and team eight, so surely they weren't all dead. Anxious and scare at what she would find, Sakura led Botan through the maze of tunnels and back to the room they had first seen the fighting taking place.

Whatever she had expected to see, Kurenai-Sensei strapped to a table and looking worse for wear. The Anbu team and her students were all restrained and a short creep was in the process of reaching up to remove one of the masks as he went on about his genius.

"Oh no, we're too late." Botan said in despair at the sight of Kurenai.

"Too late for what?"

"To stop Dr. Ichigaki from getting his hands on them, it's too much for just the Spirit Detective to handle and I knew Koenma was over underestimating the situation." She groused in a nearly inaudible whisper, pulling her oar from who knows where. "Hey look!" She shouted and pointed behind them in a panic, causing Sakura to whirl around to see what the threat was. "A distraction!" She finished and Sakura felt a blow to the back of her head before she could fully process that she had been duped.

As darkness swam in the corners of her visions, she glared at the apologetic looking Botan. "Sorry Sakura, but it's time you woke up, Kurama can't do this on his own."

'Kurama?' Her brain didn't have time to fully process that as she was consumed by darkness.

She was getting too old for this shit.

oOo

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AN: Okay, this is majorly unedited, I did try to make sure there wasn't any big spelling mistakes, but you are getting grammar as is because I lack time to properly re-read this and didn't want to make you wait any longer than necessary.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed it~


	16. The Revered Friend

oOo

 **CHAPTER XVI**

 **(The Revered Friend )**

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oOo

Kurama wasn't sure when this mission went wrong, maybe when it was when they decided to go after Orochimaru. Perhaps it had been when he brushed off a message from Botan on his compact because of radio silence. No matter when it was, they were in some serious trouble and Orochimaru was hardly a footnote in failed missions. Naturally the slimy bastard had escaped and they had been so thoroughly occupied with what they found, that it was too late to give chase.

Kurenai gave a groan of pain as whatever liquid Dr. Ichigaki was feeding her intravenously worked through her system. Her skin was paler than normal and a sheen of sweat beaded along her hairline. Kurama was pretty sure that the bastard had died during the Dark Tournament in his life as Minamino Shuichi, but clearly not. Somehow the yokai had found a way to prolong his life and that had come back to haunt him in the flesh.

"Yes, my research might have been delayed for several millennia, but with how you ningen have started to progress again, it wasn't too hard, for someone of my genius, to finally piece together the final few components needed to bring my research to fruition. How about one of you masked ones next?" He asked rhetorically as he reached for Neko's mask.

Time seemed to slow down as Dr. Ichigaki began to lift the mask. Only to get a boot to the head for his troubles, causing the mask to settle back protectively over Neko's face. His best friend could be vicious under the right conditions and it was with slight smug staticfaction that the mad scientist was now bleeding heavily from his mouth.

"You insolent worm, I'm trying to improve your race and now look what you've done!" He spat a wad of blood and a tooth into his hand with a snarl. Shoving the tooth back in with a grinding squelch, one that made Kurenai's students gag, Dr. Ichigaki furiously turned back to Kurenai. His ranting had expertly covered up a decidedly familiar shout, which meant backup had arrived.

It was painful for Kurama to watch his friends in so much danger and if they hadn't needed them for this mission so badly, Kurama would have talked Hound-taicho into forgoing the specialized tracker team. Holding back a sigh, he tried not to dwell on that as he spotted Botan peeking around a corner. She was gone before Dr. Ichigaki looked up and for a moment Kurama panicked thinking she had been spotted, only for the bastard to reach up to pull the light closer.

"Ningen and yokai have very similar physiology, this is why on a rare occasion breeding between the two is successful. But with this, it will bridge the gap, taking the microscopic traces of yokai DNA already present in Ningen these days and transforming the next generation into stronger beings than yokai and nengin combine!" He giggled to himself as he tinkered tubes and beakers on the table beside Kurenai. "And with the wonders of fuuinjutsu I will have better control over them as well!" He gloated, holding up a syringe filled with something that looked very much like black ink.

Before anyone could protest, Dr. Ichigaki injected the fluid into Kurenai's neck. It was clearly too much pain for the woman to handle as she cried out when the sludge was combined with whatever was being pumped into her body. It was about that time when a spike of reiki and a familiar wave of spiritual energy washed over the laboratory. The mad scientist sensed the disturbance just about the time the slightly taller visage of Sakura loomed ominously behind him.

"Reihado-ken!" She shouted and when her fist connected with his gut there was a surprisingly dramatic spray of blood from his mouth.

As he dropped to the floor, Sakura crouched with a glowing hand, thrusting it forward. And just like that, Dr. Ichigaki was missing a head. It was a type of brutalness he had never seen from Sakura before and he was finding himself falling for her all over again. His wounded pride from being saved by his girlfriend aside, there was an air about her that was familiar, more so than ever. It was the way in which she was standing, one arm tucked behind her and the blood splattered hand held in front of her gracefully.

"Sakura!" Hinata shouted in warning, having spotted something approaching that they weren't able to see yet. Not wasting time, Sakura hit the release switch to their restraints just as a hoard spilled into the laboratory. They looked like a mob of lower class yokai, or animals that had been perverted into human shapes. Whatever they were, they were powerful and the blood lust wafted from them in droves.

"Fight them off, I'm going to help Kurenai-Sensei!" Sakura shouted, already turning toward the dark haired woman.

Not wasting any time, Kurama was thrown into battle, swarmed by the attacking demons. It wasn't until one that was still human looking, covered in black inky swirls and warped chakra, that he identified these beings as Orochimaru's experiments. The curse seal marks had twisted their forms grotesquely and whatever this next stage was had mutated them beyond recognition. He could help but wonder if that was going to happen to Sasuke. Was this part of what Orochimaru had planned for his friend? The curse seal had been pretty much inert over the years and Jiraiya had worked on new seals all the time to keep it contained, but would it be enough? Would his friend be corrupted by the curse seal? The snake Sannin was starting to become a real thorn in their sides and it burned that the bastard wasn't even here when they arrived. This mission had been a trap, a very clever and long planned one that none of them should have been surprised by.

Even still, the snake gave them the slip, Dr. Ichigaki laying in wait. Likely whatever Orochimaru had been using the yokai for had been completed and the Snake Sannin had left the Mad Scientist behind for them to dispose of, distracting them from pursuing him.

Kurama's distraction and raised levels of anger led to a costly mistake, one that literally drove its point home into his abdomen. Glaring back at the almost demonic from before him, he cut his opponent down, only to be stabbed again, this time from behind, a sword poking out through his mid thigh. Growling, Kurama slashed blindly at his attackers, managing to claw their faces before they shrieked away from the foray. Kurama wasn't so lucky, the number of Oto-nin with curse seals far out weighed their meager two teams and it was starting to show. Each one of them were reaching their limit and even Hound-taicho was clutching a wound of questionable severity.

Hinata took down an Oto-nin not to far away before he lost sight of her again, mustering the strength to fend off another opponent. Neko landed beside him and helped him work his way over to where Hinata and Kiba were defending their Sensei and Sakura. Unable to do much more than stand as his wounds slowly closed themselves, he was a bit shocked when arms full of soft curves was deposited into his hold, nearly making him tip with the unexpected weight.

"You're in no condition to fight Weasel-san, please evacuate my patient and these notes, there isn't much, but if she's going to live you need to get these back to the Hokage." Sakura ordered turning to join the fighting before she paused. "Oh, there's one of your men in the forest, he was unconscious when I left him, but he should be good to travel back with you, gather him before you leave." She added as almost an afterthought, before vanishing into the mass of clashing metal and flesh.

Only… all his team members were in this room. Hound-taicho hadn't informed them there would be another member of this team, but perhaps there was something else going on that he and Neko hadn't been informed of. Maybe Eguana had a side mission, Anko tended to be a spitfire like that. Worrying for a second longer on whether he should actually leave when the two and possibly a three women he loved were likely facing their deaths, he turned, trusting that they could make it out of this alive. The poofing of summon smoke behind him and the telltale sound of scales scraping on cement from Eguana's serpents settled his nerves only a little.

Once outside, Kurama did a cursory search for this mysterious extra teammate and located him just on the other side of a small crop of trees. When he landed next to the young man, he stiffened, but didn't react negatively to Kurama's presence, so he approached cautiously. Signing code for him to follow, the boy stood, nodded and stuck right on his heels as they made a mad dash for the village.

oOo

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oOo

Kurama wasn't sure if he made back to the village or not upon regaining consciousness. His first reaction was to pretend to still be sleeping until he could gather more information on exactly where he was. There was the steady hum of electricity and quite shuffling of shoes down a tiled hallway, though the sound was muffled so the room he was in was sealed off by a door at least. Giving his fingers a slight wiggle, he could feel something clamped on one of them and the light tug of an IV in the back of his hand. Cracking an eye open superstitiously he was able to make out the blinding white of the ceiling before having to screw his eyes shut again.

Right, Konoha's hospital.

Finally allowing his body the normal functions of waking, he adjusted himself to try and sit up when a low voice startled him. "You shouldn't move just yet."

Forcing his eyes open, Kurama looked over at Ibiki and sighed, settling back down into his bed. Whatever had happened in his travels between here and Konoha was serious if Ibiki had been called in to debrief him, especially since it was before he would be released from the hospital.

"Did the other teams return? Did I get Kurenai-san back safely?" He asked first, wanting to know the wellbeing of his comrades before any interrogation might happen. He wasn't really expecting an answer, so he was a little startled when he received one.

"Yuhi is in intensive care and Tsunade-sama is still tending to her. Your team is a little bruised and rough around the edges, but nothing a little rest can't fix. Yuhi's students will be released by tomorrow and Haruno should be tending her rounds as we speak. Hound-taicho has already made his escape from this hell hole." He paused at the questioning stare and dropped his feet from the edge of Kurama's bed. The man's relaxed demeanor told Kurama that he wasn't the one under scrutiny, but there was definitely something going on. "You've been out for about twenty-four hours." He was informed, Ibiki having mistakenly thought he was wondering about how long he was out.

Kurama nodded, digesting that information and trying to piece together what was going on. If he wasn't under scrutiny and the others had already been released, then that left only one other person that Ibiki could be there to question him about. "What of the other Anbu? I wasn't informed of a fifth member to our team, but he knew the proper response codes. Is he a spy?" Kurama inquired in worried bafflement. The thought that he might have brought a spy into their midst was sickening, he's usually better than that, injured or not. Considering the empty bag of blood, he could probably thank blood loss for the missing twenty-four hours. He had been more injured than he though and one of his wounds had likely nicked an artery if he had been out so long. Sometimes he forgot how fragile human bodies were, even altered as his was.

"We don't know, the Godaime and Sandaime have some theories, but we have no way of confirming anything without further information." Ibiki stated, he wasn't someone who just handed out information, often allowing the person to piece it together themselves and if you couldn't, tough luck.

If torture and interrogation didn't know who this guys was, then it was likely whoever the boy is, wasn't talking. "I'm sorry, I didn't know he was there until Sakura-chan told me she had treated him and left him unconscious in the forest." Kurama admitted his own failure, his ears drooping subconsciously and his tail curled around his hip.

"She said about the same thing, if you have nothing else to add, then report to the Hokage once you've been released." Ibiki ordered and Kurama had a feeling he was being vague for a reason.

"Hai." Kurama agreed, watching as Ibiki left the room before testing out how his injuries had recovered.

There was some tenderness around the worst of the wounds, but he had been through tougher injuries and this was hardly a scratch compared to his time with the Yusuke's team.

Now that brought back memories.

For instance, Kurama was certain Sakura wasn't quite herself anymore, not that she was less of the woman she had become, she was just… more, more like a friend he once revered. He hadn't had time to confirm it yet, but he was sure there would be a chance to catch up later. Attempting some light stretches to evaluate that he was fit to fight if necessary, Kurama moved to the window and eyed the door as he heard the knob turning. Deciding he wasn't in a mood to listen to unnecessary health instructions and limitations, he slid the window open and dropped to the ground below. He knew his own limits and an overbearing nurse was not needed.

"I was going to release you anyway!" The nurse shouted exasperatedly from the window, slamming it shut in a huff causing Kurama to chuckle.

The dash to the Hokage tower was more of a jog by shinobi or yokai standards, but it was all too soon before he was waiting at the secretary's desk to be let into the Hokage's office. While he waited Sasuke appeared beside him, a little roughed up around the edges and looking pissed about something. Judging by the small, cloth wrapped, foul smelling bento, Karin had likely tried to cook for his friend. His teammate was more likely end up needing a hospital if he ate her cooking than if he starved himself for a week. Haku could grill meats and vegetables over an open fire, but they were bland and more often than not half raw. Of the three of them, Sasuke was the only one with any culinary skills and had taken to cooking more often than not. Except, as it seemed, on special getwell occasions.

"What vile concoction is it this time?" His ears twitched curiously, it was a true skill to make food as toxic as the poisons that Anko favors.

"Sardine and nori casserole…" That didn't sound so bad… "with burnt rice, tomatoes and natto." Sasuke deadpanned, holding it up to Kurama's face like a diseased carcass. "Take it."

"No way!" Kurama blanched, nabbing the secretary's trash bin and holding it between them like a shield. "At least she remembers you like tomatoes." Sasuke deposited the bento in the bin and Kurama was thankful when they were finally buzzed in.

The secretary, he wasn't as impressed, if the glares sent their way was any indication.

Kakashi-taicho, Tenzo-sempai and Anko were already waiting and Sarutobi-sama was leaning against the wall just behind where Tsunade normally sat. Kurama spotted the guards leaving, only because he had guard duty once as a reprimand for overstepping his bounds and knew what to watch for. It was strange they were being left 'alone' in the Hokage's presence, even if all of them had been put on guard duty at one point or another, it wasn't something done lightly. The Hokage's personal guards were never to let the past or present Hokage from their sight, until they retired to their homes for the day and even then their was a close knit patrol that circled the Hokage's property.

Standing at attention just behind Kakashi-taicho, Kurama waited patiently while Tsunade finished sorting some papers on her desk before sitting down. Stamping another paper, she closed the folder and then looked up when Sarutobi-sama sealed the room for absolute privacy. Leaning back tiredly and crossing her legs, a wary expression she normally didn't allow settled on her deceptively young face.

"I've called you all here for several reasons, the cluster fuck of your last mission being one of them." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her desk and steepled her fingers in front of her chin, a sign Kurama had come to recognise meant that she had bad news. "Yuhi-san will live, whatever was done to her is eating and mutating her DNA.. isn't reversible. As of right now I have put her into a temporary coma and once the substances in her system have run their course I will proceed from there." Tsunade explained to their surprise, there were very few things Tsunade couldn't fix with her skills as a medic.

"If we're not here about Yuhi-san, then are we here about the boy we found?" Sakura looked tired, bags under her eyes and a tangled mess of hair divulging the fact that she hadn't gotten any rest in the last twenty-four hours.

"No, though we're still delicately interrogating him, it appears as if he has some kind of amnesia. There will be an in-depth investigation to figure out where he came from and why he was there, but that isn't why you're here either, I've called you here for another mission." The gravity in her voice made her seem more her age and Kurama's stomach gave a flop at what this could mean. Usually, even in situations that were supposed to be serious there was a certain amount of "casualness" about it, but right now the room was devoid of such light heartedness.

"But some of us aren't completely recovered, what could be so bad that you're sending half injured shinobi out?" Sakura demanded on behalf of himself and Kakashi-taicho. Team Kurenai was precariously absent, perhaps they had been more injured than he thought and it pissed him off that Dr. Ichigaki and Orochimaru's minions might have hurt more of his friends.

"You're being sent as backup mainly, you'll be rendezvousing with Team Gai and two other teams in the area, I've already sent out one another team, but they've not reported back." Which was likely a euphemism for dead. "Suna is under attack and I'm sending every available shinobi I can spare to assist them. From my last report, they were after the Kazekage. We think they are part of a criminal organization called the Akatsuki, they're after Jinchuuriki and are targeting the Kazekage."

Color drained from their faces, it was an act of war to directly attack a Kage and there was a real chance that whoever was attacking Suna was powerful.

"That's not all." Tsunade paused, shooting Sasuke a hesitant glance. "There are two specific criminals involved, one is a Kiri-nukenin by the name of Hoshigaki Kisame, he is known to be as strong as a Jinchuuriki without actually being one himself. However, it's his partner that I'm sure some of you are familiar with, Uchiha Itachi." There was a collective gasp and eyes fell on Sasuke in question, but he and Kurama ignored the attention in favor of sharing a glance of their own.

They hadn't uncovered much, but there were hints around the Uchiha compound and the Naka Shrine that indicated there had been something going on with the Uchiha shortly before the massacre. How Itachi was involved and whether or not he just cracked under the pressure that the clan forced on him, they still didn't know. Kurama had a gut instinct that told him there was more to the death of the Uchiha clan than the village was led to believe and Sasuke was starting to see it too.

"Your orders Hokage-sama?" Sasuke hedged monotonously, trying to contain any emotional response that he may have. Even now it was difficult for him to curtail the initial anger that bubbled up at the mention of his brother, reasons behind the massacre or not, Itachi had still killed everyone Sasuke cared for. Tsunade, who had likely been expecting Sasuke to blow up in anger, gave a sigh and her shoulders sagged in relief.

"We have spies tracking the Akatsuki's movements, but we need more information. Their headquarters is inaccessible by our spy network and out of the two Akatsuki members attacking Suna, the more likely target to capture alive is your brother." Tsunade stated and flinched at the corrosive spike of Sasuke's killer intent.

"Understood, I have questions of my own and if that means keeping him alive for a little longer, then so be it." Sasuke stated through clenched teeth and Kurama nearly missed the flinch Sarutobi-sama gave to his dark-haired teammate's response.

Did he know something?

"You've got half an hour to deploy." Tsunade stated and stood slamming her hands down on her desk. "And you better come back in better condition than your last mission!" She barked, it was her own way of saying that she cared and wanted them to come back alive.

In unison they dropped to one knee in a bow and chorused "Hai, Hokage-sama!" before standing and making a mad dash to prepare for this new mission.

'We're coming Gaara.'


	17. Family Reunion

oOo

 **Chapter XVII**

 **(Family Reunion)**

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 **=(^^)=**

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oOo

The sun was hidden behind ominous clouds, strange for Suna this time of year, even for being the monsoon season. Lightening cracked in the distance and Sasuke pushed just a little more chakra to his calves, relieving the burn from overuse. Their team was nearing edge of the village and they could hear the visceral hum of battle. Kakashi and Anko veered off to the left of the village, as they would have to circled around to make contact with the opposing forces and the enemy. It was just before they came into sight of the fighting that rain started coming down in sheets and a cool wind that made it feel as if they had entered an entirely different place altogether.

Kurama signaled to him, having spotted something and the two of them looked to Kakashi to for orders.

"Kurama, with me to face Kisame and Sasuke-" Kakashi too hesitated, turning his attention to said young man "You're going to engage your brother, but remember, we want him alive, you can have your revenge later." He stated and Sasuke couldn't help rolling his eyes.

"When have I ever given you reason to doubt me, Kakashi?" He was mildly offended even if his once teacher and now Captain chuckled.

"You're right Sasuke-kun, but anyone can get emotionally invested in a battle and this one isn't going to be easy for you. I have complete faith that you are capable, but I'm duty bound to state it anyway." He stated with that damn infernal eye smile, the edges of his mask crinkling to indicate that he was actually smiling.

"Tch, whatever." Sasuke scoffed, in a poor attempt to hide that he was actually a little touched the man had so much confidence in him.

"Sakura, stick with Sasuke, you're strictly backup for him and whoever from Team Gai joins you." Said pinkett opened her mouth to argue, but was cut off. "I know you're perfectly capable under any normal circumstances, but all of us aren't at our best at the moment, with the exception of Sasuke who's actually been able to recover since our last mission, so we're only here to assist Team Gai, please don't be offended."

Sasuke wasn't, wouldn't have been even if he wasn't recovered. The battle at Orochimaru's lab was hell and he had almost become the next guinea pig after Kurenai. The whole incident only cemented the lack of desire to join the Snake Sannin and made a whole new anger boil in the pit of his stomach. He might not have been as close to Kurenai as the other rookies, but she was important to his teammates and by extension, to a certain degree, him.

"Understood." Sakura grumbled and the two of them made eye contact before Sasuke set his sights on his brother.

It took a little longer to reach the other remaining member of the Uchiha clan than expected, as they had to dodge between Suna-nin who were attacking his brother. It was surreal to watch his Itachi battle, there was still this mental image of the kind, gentle brother from before the massacre in his head. Even after all this time, after being tortured by the image of his brother killing their clan over and over again, he was still excited to see him.

It disturbed him.

There wasn't a happy feeling associated with the sight of his brother, more like an ingrained response and he was swift to bury it. Pushing a little harder, he was almost startled to see something that was far too large circle above in the clouds. Whoever, or whatever it had been, it was wearing an Akatsuki cloak and it's chakra seemed to saturate the surrounding rain. The likelihood that it was a jutsu making rain for Kisame to used crossed his mind and was shoved into the back of his mind as they made contact.

Everything was a flurry of kunai strikes and clanging metal, his brother skillfully multitasking in parring his and the Suna shinobi's attacks. A puppet chattered away next to him and he moved out of the way as it attacked his brother, only to be backhanded by Itachi and sent skidding toward its master. Not one to waste an opportunity Sasuke drew his tanto, a modified carry over from his Anbu profession, and began a barrage of hacks and slashes that drove his brother back defensively.

There was a short moment where Sasuke's guard was open and naturally his brother exploited it like the prodigy he was. Doubled over, Sasuke put a little distance between them, glancing back at the Suna shinobi who were regrouping and planning another attack.

"You've grown stronger," His brother stated, infuriatingly not out of breath, despite the fact he had likely been battling for hours before they arrived.

Sasuke didn't so much as blink at they began fighting again, at least that's what his senses told him. However, he knew better, this was a battle of wills, of the mind arts and illusion weaving. Likely to those not involved in the battle, it would appear as if they were just standing still, staring each other down.

Pushing back and twisting the illusion, Sasuke felt no small amount of smugness when the murder of his clan gasped in surprise. Itachi took control of the genjutsu once more and Sasuke nearly collapsed when he was finally able to dispel it. Both of them stood there for a moment longer, staring at each other and contemplating their next moves.

"Hn, but you're not strong enough, you still do not posses eyes like mine, you're still weak." He taunted, raising a hand and pointing at him. Sasuke braced for another genjutsu battle or even the Tsukuyomi, he learned from the hidden Uchiha meeting place, under the Naka Shrine, that it was a secret ability of the Mangekyou Sharingan. However neither happened and instead his brother dissolved into a murder of ravens, just as whatever jutsu the Suna team had fired at Itachi, struck nothing but air.

Not one to fall for his brother's antics, he didn't cheer with the Suna team, alerting them to the fact that the battle was not over. The displacement of air and rain behind him had Sasuke turning sharply, dodging a sharp swipe of a kunai aimed for the base of his skull. Rain repelled from his hair, each drop tracked by the sharingan even as his hand came up to grip his brother's wrist and pull the older man's gut into his knee. In some feat of dexterity, Itachi managed to leap over said knee and twist Sasuke's arm behind him, forcing him to release his brother or dislocate his own arm.

There was a clash of metal as the Suna team attacked, hoping his brother had been properly distracted. Quick as a viper, his brother countered the attacks most life threatening and trapped the rest in genjutsu, leaving them lying prone on the ground, screaming in fear. A couple of them managed to impressively break free of the jutsu and drag their struggling comrades to the side lines to regroup once more.

Black consuming flames barreled toward him and Sasuke just managed to dodge them, the Suna shinobi making quick work of mud walls to protect themselves, but had to retreat when the flames began melting through the chakra reinforced soil. Holding out a hand, Sasuke summoned the black flames to himself, wrapping around his arm and swirling there. If he hadn't been paying attention, he might have missed the widening of surprise in his brother's eyes when he redirected the flames at Itachi.

While the older Uchiha was distracted in dodging the flames, Sasuke pulled Kotto, the bone sword Kurama retrieved from Kimimaro, from a secret compartment seal on his wrist band. Not waiting for Itachi to completely vanish the darkness flames Sasuke barreled unharmed through them to spear his brother in the shoulder. And for a moment, he thought he might have succeeded, only to find himself surrounded by another murder of raven.

He was seriously starting to hate that jutsu.

Locating his brother, Sasuke engaged him once more in a battle of blades and genjutsu. Neither seemed to be gaining the upper hand and it was really starting to frustrate him there was still such a power gap between them when a shout drew his everyone's attention.

Over where Team Gai and the others had been battling Kisame, Sasuke could make out a sluggish, half formed hand of sand reaching toward the sky. The thing that had been circling the battlefield had been an Akatsuki member, one with ginger hair and many piercings, clutching in his arms something that suspiciously resembled Kurama. Scanning the battlefield, Kurama could see Kisame, shirtless and likely dead on the ground and the other severely weakened and unable to give chase. Not one to waste an opportunity, Itachi was already trying to make a retreat when something pink barreled into him, making a crater in it's wake and forcing his brother to drop like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

"Sorry Sasuke, I couldn't let him get away, not when…" Sakura trailed off in worry, eyes lingering on the horizon where Kurama had vanished with the red haired Akatsuki member.

Grunting, Sasuke glared down at his brother, pulling a strip of cloth from his arm wrappings to cover his brother's eyes with. "What did you do to him?" He asked and he bound his brother's hands even though he was unconscious and slapped a chakra suppression seal on his forehead over the bandage covering his eyes.

"Traumatized his spine to create temporary paralysis when I tackled him, I didn't think it would work. It might lose us some time, but we need to get him back to the village, it's better to interrogate him and find out where Kurama is being taken than to pursue them blindly."

He couldn't fault her reasoning, looking back at the team sealing up Kisame's body and sword, which was trying to scurry off on its own. This victory felt hollow and he glared down at his brother, hating him just a little more for getting his best friend captured. As tempting as it was to just kill him while he had the chance, Itachi was the only hope Sasuke had of rescuing Kurama. Bending down, he hoist the dead weight of the older Uchiha and nodded to Sakura, giving her permission to take point as they rendezvous with the other Konoha shinobi and made a made dash for Konohagakure no Sato.

oOo

* * *

oOo

The Kyubi's Jinchuuriki hadn't been their intended target, though considering the refreshed alliance between Konoha and Suna, Pain wasn't wholly surprised. Their target had been the newly appointed Kazekage, host to the Ichibi, but Konoha had valiantly come to the aid of their allies. By stroke of luck, the Kyubi's host was already weakened for unknown reasons, but it greatly helped in the capture of the peculiar Uzumaki.

They had obtained three Bijuu already, but acquiring the Kyubi's Jinchuuriki put them ahead of schedule. It was only a misfortune the hadn't been able to abduct the Ichibi as well, but plans were already being set to try once more. Soon enough the plan would be complete and he would be that much closer to achieving Yahiko's dream.

A world without war, peace among men. ' _Yahiko, would you believe in what we are trying to accomplish?_ '

Oh how he doubted it was possible at times and even now he knew that impster was plotting something behind his back, not that Pain had any control over that. As powerful as he was, he was still no match for someone who couldn't be touched. That man's ability to phase through solid objects was infuriation at best and most assuredly deadly if underestimated. He couldn't help but wonder if Yahiko would be disappointed in him, using his dreams as his own. Settling into position, Pain gave a pulse of chakra to summon the other members, it was time to start the extraction, one that would take days to finish, he had no time for reminiscing. Being two members down would cause enough delays, second guessing himself wouldn't change anything, it wasn't just up to him anymore… if it had ever been.

The other seven members appeared on their corresponding finger of the Juubi's husk and the Kyubi's Jinchuuriki awoke with a nearly inaudible gasp, twisting in his binds when he realised where he was.

"No, what have you done." He stated in horror, staring up at the Juubi husk, three dead looking eyes were open on the statue, the other four closed as if it were sleeping. Then that's when things took a turn for the strange.

They blinked.

Pain had just enough time to hit the Juubi's containment seals, halting it as its face turned into an angry snarl, jaw unhinged and ready to devour.

"You have to stop, the Juubi isn't what you think it is." The Jinchuuriki stated, staring apprehensively at the statue, but allowing no other concerns to dominate his emotions.

"Your ploy to stall is commendable, but we will extract the Kyuubi from you." For a Chunin, his nonplussed response was textbook and Pain found himself begrudgingly reevaluating the potential threat this particular Jinchuuriki could pose if he did manage to escape.

"And you may very well, but a fair warning, the Juubi will not be the weapon you wish to wield. It is only the beginning." There was a twitch in one of the kids fingers, but the seals restraining him held as the final members arrived. "Otsutsuki Kaguya… though I knew her by another name."

The name had no meaning to him, he had heard rumors that the Otsutsuki clan still had members floating around, but they were content to hide in the shadows. Ready to dismiss the name as an unimportant distraction, a wave of killing intent spiked from one of the Akatsuki members and Zetsu barreled across the seal array to grip the Jinchuuriki by the throat.

"YO **U** WI **LL** N **O** T SP **EA** K M **O** TH **ER'S** **NAME** HU **MAN**!" The plant based man snarled, frothing at the mouth in rage and doing his best to strangle their captive.

"Zetsu." He stood, jumping and landing next to the two in an instant, pulling the plant from the young Kyubi container.

"Let **go** of **us** , **I w** ill _**not**_ let **th** at _**monkey**_ -" Pain didn't allow him to finish, back handing the cannibalistic member of the Akatsuki… though perhaps he wasn't truly a cannibal? Could someone be a cannibal if what they were eating wasn't the same species?

"You will cease this, if you kill him, you will set our plans back decades." Pain tried to reason and this seemed to allow some semblance of control to enter the inhuman golden eyes.

"You're right, I apologise Pain-sama." He said, returning to his place on the Juubi's husk.

First the Juubi moving on it's own and now Zetsu? He thought it would have been Madara who was set off by the Kitsune, not the weakest of their members. Zetsu was hardly useful for anything better than reconnaissances, or so he thought. Reluctant to return to the extraction, Pain turned his attention to his longest partner, his trusted friend and ally. If Konan's look of indecision was anything to go by, then she too thought the behavior odd.

This would not have been the first time they had been used and to think the person or thing using them wasn't who they thought it was. Just who was the man claiming to be Madara?

Staring at the Juubi for a long moment, Pain had had decided the answer to his own question…

Yahiko would be mortified at what had become of the Akatsuki.

But Yahiko wasn't here and only Pain remained… he returned to his place on the Juubi's right thumb.

"Begin."


End file.
